Reading the Landscape of Ezekiel 40-48: A Theology of Resilience
Published: May 2025
£75.00
When the landscape architect IChun Kuo opens up an ancient plan written in the book of Ezekiel, she encounters a planner who is called “son of man”, who was instructed to a vision. Bewildered by this unworldly yet grounded visioned plan, Kuo seeks help from Assyrian King Sennacherib who constructed gardens, Jerome who was puzzled by the labyrinth, Newton who was obsessed with the measurement. She asks biblical scholars, archaeologists, architects and planners, until she finds the patterns.
Reading the Landscape of Ezekiel is a journey of decoding a mesmerizing ancient landscape, which reflects history of social and ecological catastrophes, survival and renovation, and the mechanisms of God’s design. Kuo argues that Ezekiel 40–48 can be understood as an ancient resilient landscape plan that encompasses rigidity and ductility, resistance and recovery.
Given the ancient hazards described in Ezekiel (sword, famine, evil creatures, and pestilence), the mechanism of landscape resilience in Ezekiel 40–48 is similar to modern time ecosystem resilience, as well as disaster risk reduction, and epidemiology/public health of war and defence policy. An understanding of the ancient planning in Ezekiel 40–48 may shed light on our reading of the biblical text, our way of viewing the depicted visions, as well as the implications of our planning of the environment.
Reading the Landscape of Ezekiel 40-48: A Theology of Resilience
£75.00
When the landscape architect IChun Kuo opens up an ancient plan written in the book of Ezekiel, she encounters a planner who is called “son of man”, who was instructed to a vision. Bewildered by this unworldly yet grounded visioned plan, Kuo seeks help from Assyrian King Sennacherib who constructed gardens, Jerome who was puzzled by the labyrinth, Newton who was obsessed with the measurement. She asks biblical scholars, archaeologists, architects and planners, until she finds the patterns.
Reading the Landscape of Ezekiel is a journey of decoding a mesmerizing ancient landscape, which reflects history of social and ecological catastrophes, survival and renovation, and the mechanisms of God’s design. Kuo argues that Ezekiel 40–48 can be understood as an ancient resilient landscape plan that encompasses rigidity and ductility, resistance and recovery.
Given the ancient hazards described in Ezekiel (sword, famine, evil creatures, and pestilence), the mechanism of landscape resilience in Ezekiel 40–48 is similar to modern time ecosystem resilience, as well as disaster risk reduction, and epidemiology/public health of war and defence policy. An understanding of the ancient planning in Ezekiel 40–48 may shed light on our reading of the biblical text, our way of viewing the depicted visions, as well as the implications of our planning of the environment.
The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised
Published: Mar 2025
£250.00
The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (2025) is a single volume desk dictionary abridgement of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) (2018–2028). The Shorter Dictionary is over 825,000 words in length, placing into a single volume 1/6th of the material of the complete DCHR (over 5 million words), and is designed to be a replacement for BDB (the standard 1906 English lexicon of Hebrew).
The Shorter Dictionary contains more than 6,420 Hebrew words not in BDB, and refers to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions, making it the most thorough Hebrew dictionary ever produced.
Every Hebrew word in The Shorter Dictionary is followed immediately by an English translation (except for the variant forms of a word and the byforms), so that The Shorter Dictionary can be easily understood by a person with little or no Hebrew.
Further features of the dictionary include:
–Scope—The Shorter Dictionary includes not only Biblical Hebrew but also all Classical Hebrew (pre-200 ce), i .e . Ben Sira, Dead Sea Scrolls, inscriptions.
–Syntagmatic analysis—shows examples of subjects and objects of verbs, those of which a noun is subject or object, etc.
–Occurrence statistics—for each word in the four corpora of Classical Hebrew: Hebrew Bible, Ben Sira, Dead Sea Scrolls, Inscriptions—and for each voice (binyan) of a verb.
–Parallels and oppositions. Shows all words used in parallel or opposition in texts.
–A notation of: 4,285 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) identified for the first time; 717 verbal nouns (nouns derived from a verb) -with their own articles (not previously shown in Hebrew lexica); 345 denominative verbs (verbs derived from a noun); and the semantic field to which every word belongs (a totally new feature for Hebrew dictionaries).
–An abbreviated version of DCHR’s extensive bibliographies is provided in The Shorter Dictionary.
Not only is The Shorter Dictionary three times longer than The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (2009)—also The Concise Dictionary is an abbreviation of the original Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993–2016), whereas The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised contains the improved and expanded approach of DCHR (2018–2028).
The Shorter Dictionary (2025) has always planned to be released during the longer period of publication for the 9 volumes of DCHR. From 2019 to 2022 David J.A. Clines, prior to his final illnesses and death:
–completed every necessary editorial task for the future volumes;
–oversaw the preparation of and collation of most materials;
–and provided the means by which the project Research Associate, David Stec, could collate The Shorter Dictionary as well as bring the remaining DCHR volumes to publication.
List price: £250 / $400 / €300
Scholars' price: £125 / $200 / €150 (use code 'scholar' at checkout)
DCHR 1–9 Subscribers' price: £100 / $160 / €120 (email: phoenix.bibs@sheffield.ac.uk for further information)
The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised
£250.00
The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (2025) is a single volume desk dictionary abridgement of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) (2018–2028). The Shorter Dictionary is over 825,000 words in length, placing into a single volume 1/6th of the material of the complete DCHR (over 5 million words), and is designed to be a replacement for BDB (the standard 1906 English lexicon of Hebrew).
The Shorter Dictionary contains more than 6,420 Hebrew words not in BDB, and refers to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions, making it the most thorough Hebrew dictionary ever produced.
Every Hebrew word in The Shorter Dictionary is followed immediately by an English translation (except for the variant forms of a word and the byforms), so that The Shorter Dictionary can be easily understood by a person with little or no Hebrew.
Further features of the dictionary include:
–Scope—The Shorter Dictionary includes not only Biblical Hebrew but also all Classical Hebrew (pre-200 ce), i .e . Ben Sira, Dead Sea Scrolls, inscriptions.
–Syntagmatic analysis—shows examples of subjects and objects of verbs, those of which a noun is subject or object, etc.
–Occurrence statistics—for each word in the four corpora of Classical Hebrew: Hebrew Bible, Ben Sira, Dead Sea Scrolls, Inscriptions—and for each voice (binyan) of a verb.
–Parallels and oppositions. Shows all words used in parallel or opposition in texts.
–A notation of: 4,285 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) identified for the first time; 717 verbal nouns (nouns derived from a verb) -with their own articles (not previously shown in Hebrew lexica); 345 denominative verbs (verbs derived from a noun); and the semantic field to which every word belongs (a totally new feature for Hebrew dictionaries).
–An abbreviated version of DCHR’s extensive bibliographies is provided in The Shorter Dictionary.
Not only is The Shorter Dictionary three times longer than The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (2009)—also The Concise Dictionary is an abbreviation of the original Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993–2016), whereas The Shorter Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised contains the improved and expanded approach of DCHR (2018–2028).
The Shorter Dictionary (2025) has always planned to be released during the longer period of publication for the 9 volumes of DCHR. From 2019 to 2022 David J.A. Clines, prior to his final illnesses and death:
–completed every necessary editorial task for the future volumes;
–oversaw the preparation of and collation of most materials;
–and provided the means by which the project Research Associate, David Stec, could collate The Shorter Dictionary as well as bring the remaining DCHR volumes to publication.
List price: £250 / $400 / €300
Scholars' price: £125 / $200 / €150 (use code 'scholar' at checkout)
DCHR 1–9 Subscribers' price: £100 / $160 / €120 (email: phoenix.bibs@sheffield.ac.uk for further information)
Song of Songs in Sense, Sound and Space
Published: Nov 2024
£70.00
This volume offers 13 cutting-edge essays on the Song of Songs presented in four categories.
1. Exegetical and Contextualised Studies. Fernandes argues Solomon’s sidelining in the Song is unjust and uncovers subtle allusions to him. Scheffler examines the contentious place of Song 7.1 and its depiction. Lombaard challenges whether gender equity exists in the Song, arguing that female voices are more prominent than male ones. Landy employs affect theory to the depiction of the woman as a mare (1.9-11) and the invitation for her to return (7.1). Kim highlights the subjectivity of interpretation by comparing readings of Song 7 by Keel, Black and herself through the lens of Umberto Eco’s semiotic model. Potgieter and Lombaard contemporise Paul Decock’s readings of Origen and Bernard on the Song.
2. Spatial Studies. Fischer applies Lefebvre’s spatial theory to the Song, highlighting the protagonists’ physical space; their conceived (cultural) space; and their lived space (their supra-temporal experience). Dantonel analyses several spatial domains in both the Song and Proverbs: spring; well; and vineyard along with three places of enduring love: mother’s house; door; and window.
3. Comparative Studies. Volkonski compares Early Arabic poetic techniques and the Song to show new possibilities for interpreting the latter. Recalcati investigates parallels between the Song and Hellenistic epigrammatic poetry within the Anthologia Palatina. Biermann explores the metaphor(s) ‘set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm’ in 8.6 through cognitive linguistics and sensory archaeology.
4. Studies in Music. Boyce-Tillman integrates her reading of the Song with her musical compositions to contemporise themes including fertility, the body, ecotheology, and apophatic theology. Lamont and Fernandes survey four shared tropes between Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry, St. Patrick’s Breastplate and the Song: love and war; incantation and magic; connection with nature; and in medias res.
Song of Songs in Sense, Sound and Space
£70.00
This volume offers 13 cutting-edge essays on the Song of Songs presented in four categories.
1. Exegetical and Contextualised Studies. Fernandes argues Solomon’s sidelining in the Song is unjust and uncovers subtle allusions to him. Scheffler examines the contentious place of Song 7.1 and its depiction. Lombaard challenges whether gender equity exists in the Song, arguing that female voices are more prominent than male ones. Landy employs affect theory to the depiction of the woman as a mare (1.9-11) and the invitation for her to return (7.1). Kim highlights the subjectivity of interpretation by comparing readings of Song 7 by Keel, Black and herself through the lens of Umberto Eco’s semiotic model. Potgieter and Lombaard contemporise Paul Decock’s readings of Origen and Bernard on the Song.
2. Spatial Studies. Fischer applies Lefebvre’s spatial theory to the Song, highlighting the protagonists’ physical space; their conceived (cultural) space; and their lived space (their supra-temporal experience). Dantonel analyses several spatial domains in both the Song and Proverbs: spring; well; and vineyard along with three places of enduring love: mother’s house; door; and window.
3. Comparative Studies. Volkonski compares Early Arabic poetic techniques and the Song to show new possibilities for interpreting the latter. Recalcati investigates parallels between the Song and Hellenistic epigrammatic poetry within the Anthologia Palatina. Biermann explores the metaphor(s) ‘set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm’ in 8.6 through cognitive linguistics and sensory archaeology.
4. Studies in Music. Boyce-Tillman integrates her reading of the Song with her musical compositions to contemporise themes including fertility, the body, ecotheology, and apophatic theology. Lamont and Fernandes survey four shared tropes between Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry, St. Patrick’s Breastplate and the Song: love and war; incantation and magic; connection with nature; and in medias res.
Ancient Israel, Judah, and Greece: Laying the Foundation of a Comparative Approach
Published: Nov 2024
£70.00
Andrew Tobolowsky offers a new starting point for comparative investigations into the traditions of the Hebrew Bible and of ancient Greece. Noting a number of shared problems and questions in the study of each corpus, he advocates for a method based on comparing not tradition to tradition but scholarly approach to scholarly approach. He argues that such a method not only helps overcome the problem of parallelomania, and a high philological barrier to entry, but transforms scholars in each discipline into fellow travellers, capable of offering each other useful insights.
By applying this method of comparing scholarly approaches, Tobolowsky considers four crucial questions:
- what do contemporary understandings of ethnic identity mean for the study of these traditions;
- what role should extraliterary evidence play in illuminating them;
- how should we understand the data of genealogical traditions;
- and what do new understandings of the porousness of cultural boundaries in the ancient world mean for the study of foundation traditions.
In each case, he surveys the landscape of contemporary debates in both fields to determine what new ideas hold the most promise for solving intractable problems—and for most successfully moving on from outdated assumptions.
In addition, Ancient Israel, Judah, and Greece particularly emphasizes the usefulness of thinking about the historical development of traditions in the Hebrew Bible through the lens of a Mediterranean context where there is so much more evidence for how traditions were inherited and adapted to work with. Overall, Tobolowsky argues that what each of these comparisons most clearly demonstrates is the crucial importance of completing the shift from a “kernels of truth” based approach to the study of traditions to one where their ongoing dynamism as the medium for redescribing identity and the past is emphasized instead.
Ancient Israel, Judah, and Greece: Laying the Foundation of a Comparative Approach
£70.00
Andrew Tobolowsky offers a new starting point for comparative investigations into the traditions of the Hebrew Bible and of ancient Greece. Noting a number of shared problems and questions in the study of each corpus, he advocates for a method based on comparing not tradition to tradition but scholarly approach to scholarly approach. He argues that such a method not only helps overcome the problem of parallelomania, and a high philological barrier to entry, but transforms scholars in each discipline into fellow travellers, capable of offering each other useful insights.
By applying this method of comparing scholarly approaches, Tobolowsky considers four crucial questions:
- what do contemporary understandings of ethnic identity mean for the study of these traditions;
- what role should extraliterary evidence play in illuminating them;
- how should we understand the data of genealogical traditions;
- and what do new understandings of the porousness of cultural boundaries in the ancient world mean for the study of foundation traditions.
In each case, he surveys the landscape of contemporary debates in both fields to determine what new ideas hold the most promise for solving intractable problems—and for most successfully moving on from outdated assumptions.
In addition, Ancient Israel, Judah, and Greece particularly emphasizes the usefulness of thinking about the historical development of traditions in the Hebrew Bible through the lens of a Mediterranean context where there is so much more evidence for how traditions were inherited and adapted to work with. Overall, Tobolowsky argues that what each of these comparisons most clearly demonstrates is the crucial importance of completing the shift from a “kernels of truth” based approach to the study of traditions to one where their ongoing dynamism as the medium for redescribing identity and the past is emphasized instead.
Trauma Theories: Refractions in the Book of Jeremiah
Published: Oct 2024
£75.00
A first of its kind, this monograph examines five common trauma theories used within biblical studies, setting out the assumptions and implications of each and using passages from the book of Jeremiah to demonstrate interpretive possibilities. Trauma Theories highlights the interdisciplinary character of trauma hermeneutics and demonstrates the distinctive contribution each approach offers for biblical interpreters.
In her exploration of trauma theories, Elizabeth Boase treats each school of thought separately, tracing its disciplinary roots and its underlying convictions about language and memory. At the same time, she argues for the importance of understanding the way each theory accounts for the place of texts in a communal setting, suggesting that it is the communal impact of trauma that is key to reading biblical texts.
Boase uses passages from the Book of Jeremiah as case studies, showcasing how different theories offer diverse ways of understanding the impact of suffering experienced during the time of the Babylonian incursion on Judah and Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE.
This volume will be an invaluable resource for newcomers to the field of biblical trauma hermeneutics and for those more familiar with these approaches.
Trauma Theories: Refractions in the Book of Jeremiah
£75.00
A first of its kind, this monograph examines five common trauma theories used within biblical studies, setting out the assumptions and implications of each and using passages from the book of Jeremiah to demonstrate interpretive possibilities. Trauma Theories highlights the interdisciplinary character of trauma hermeneutics and demonstrates the distinctive contribution each approach offers for biblical interpreters.
In her exploration of trauma theories, Elizabeth Boase treats each school of thought separately, tracing its disciplinary roots and its underlying convictions about language and memory. At the same time, she argues for the importance of understanding the way each theory accounts for the place of texts in a communal setting, suggesting that it is the communal impact of trauma that is key to reading biblical texts.
Boase uses passages from the Book of Jeremiah as case studies, showcasing how different theories offer diverse ways of understanding the impact of suffering experienced during the time of the Babylonian incursion on Judah and Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE.
This volume will be an invaluable resource for newcomers to the field of biblical trauma hermeneutics and for those more familiar with these approaches.
A Distraught Prophet and Other Performance Readings in Jeremiah
Published: July 2024
£70.00
Continuing the theme of Valerie M Billingham’s, The Great Drama of Jeremiah: A Performance Reading which addresses eleven scenes in Jer 1-19, Billingham presents a performance reading of nine further scenes from chs. 20-32. In a synchronic reading, she undertakes rhetorical analyses of her own translations of the Masoretic Text, noting repetitions, chiastic structures, parallelism, alliteration and assonance that add impact to the messages. She analyses each scene according to their actors, audience, settings (geographical and socio-political), and improvisation of traditional scripts.
Employing the Earth Bible Team’s six Eco-justice Principles, she attends to the voices of Earth and members of the Earth community as they express their distress at the Babylonian invasion of Judah, and rejoice at the prospect of the exiles’ return. With the exilic community suffering Post Traumatic Stress, she argues that Jeremiah presents a manual that offers healing and restoration. Acknowledging performance as a worthy pursuit, Billingham provides helpful groundwork for engaging with texts in order to produce scripts for acting.
The performances presented include Jeremiah's distress at Yhwh's apparent deception and coercion regarding his prophetic vocation. The kings are the problem in Judah, provoking Yhwh’s judgment, but plans to appoint an ideal leader who will rule according to the covenantal qualities of wisdom, justice and righteousness. Two baskets of figs represent the exilic community and those who remain in Judah. In a twist, the good figs are identified as the suffering exiles, and the bad figs are those who avoided deportation. In a heated clash over the severity and duration of exile, yokes are smashed and Jeremiah is declared to be the true prophet of Yhwh. Jeremiah purchases his uncle’s block of land. An ecological reading presents the field as a silent symbol of hope for the exilic community. It represents all the other fields that will be restored to the rightful families of the returning exiles.
A Distraught Prophet and Other Performance Readings in Jeremiah
£70.00
Continuing the theme of Valerie M Billingham’s, The Great Drama of Jeremiah: A Performance Reading which addresses eleven scenes in Jer 1-19, Billingham presents a performance reading of nine further scenes from chs. 20-32. In a synchronic reading, she undertakes rhetorical analyses of her own translations of the Masoretic Text, noting repetitions, chiastic structures, parallelism, alliteration and assonance that add impact to the messages. She analyses each scene according to their actors, audience, settings (geographical and socio-political), and improvisation of traditional scripts.
Employing the Earth Bible Team’s six Eco-justice Principles, she attends to the voices of Earth and members of the Earth community as they express their distress at the Babylonian invasion of Judah, and rejoice at the prospect of the exiles’ return. With the exilic community suffering Post Traumatic Stress, she argues that Jeremiah presents a manual that offers healing and restoration. Acknowledging performance as a worthy pursuit, Billingham provides helpful groundwork for engaging with texts in order to produce scripts for acting.
The performances presented include Jeremiah's distress at Yhwh's apparent deception and coercion regarding his prophetic vocation. The kings are the problem in Judah, provoking Yhwh’s judgment, but plans to appoint an ideal leader who will rule according to the covenantal qualities of wisdom, justice and righteousness. Two baskets of figs represent the exilic community and those who remain in Judah. In a twist, the good figs are identified as the suffering exiles, and the bad figs are those who avoided deportation. In a heated clash over the severity and duration of exile, yokes are smashed and Jeremiah is declared to be the true prophet of Yhwh. Jeremiah purchases his uncle’s block of land. An ecological reading presents the field as a silent symbol of hope for the exilic community. It represents all the other fields that will be restored to the rightful families of the returning exiles.
Amos and Micah
Published: May 2024
£20.00 – £60.00
Amos denied being a prophet, for he was a Visionary, one who ‘saw’ and assessed what was happening around him. Micah condemned all prophets as corrupt liars, ensuring that he should not be mistaken for one. He too was a Visionary who ‘saw’ the state of affairs in that same eighth century BCE Israelite society. The fact that neither of these men is identified in the text as a prophet is vitally important, for it indicates how one must read their edited works. The traditional view that these men spoke what Yahweh their God revealed to them is not applicable; both spoke about what they themselves ‘saw’ in the social and religious context within Israel at the time.
Both books, Amos and Micah, are reports of their insights now set within new frames. Amos is structured about discrete blocks of material with shared forms, such as the opening series of numerical x, x+1 forms (1.3—2.16), the calls to ‘Hear this word…’ (3.1—5.17), ‘Woe…’ forms (5.18—6.7) and his five visions (7.1—9.6). It is a planned re-arrangement of Amos’ words (1.1) as recalled. Micah’s editor similarly has selected a number of discrete and generalized speeches attributed to Micah, setting them within a chiastic structure with 4.11-13 as the central unit; it spells out his conviction that Yahweh is ‘master of the whole earth’. Indeed, Micah’s very name asks the question ‘Who is like Yah(weh)?’ and 4.11-13 is his response, closing in 7.18-20 with another rhetorical question ‘Who is a God like you?’ Micah sees his God as incomparable!
The commentary depends on the text’s literary and rhetorical evidence to give expression to Amos’ and Micah’s deep personal concerns within the historical and cultural setting of their time.
Amos and Micah
£20.00 – £60.00
Amos denied being a prophet, for he was a Visionary, one who ‘saw’ and assessed what was happening around him. Micah condemned all prophets as corrupt liars, ensuring that he should not be mistaken for one. He too was a Visionary who ‘saw’ the state of affairs in that same eighth century BCE Israelite society. The fact that neither of these men is identified in the text as a prophet is vitally important, for it indicates how one must read their edited works. The traditional view that these men spoke what Yahweh their God revealed to them is not applicable; both spoke about what they themselves ‘saw’ in the social and religious context within Israel at the time.
Both books, Amos and Micah, are reports of their insights now set within new frames. Amos is structured about discrete blocks of material with shared forms, such as the opening series of numerical x, x+1 forms (1.3—2.16), the calls to ‘Hear this word…’ (3.1—5.17), ‘Woe…’ forms (5.18—6.7) and his five visions (7.1—9.6). It is a planned re-arrangement of Amos’ words (1.1) as recalled. Micah’s editor similarly has selected a number of discrete and generalized speeches attributed to Micah, setting them within a chiastic structure with 4.11-13 as the central unit; it spells out his conviction that Yahweh is ‘master of the whole earth’. Indeed, Micah’s very name asks the question ‘Who is like Yah(weh)?’ and 4.11-13 is his response, closing in 7.18-20 with another rhetorical question ‘Who is a God like you?’ Micah sees his God as incomparable!
The commentary depends on the text’s literary and rhetorical evidence to give expression to Amos’ and Micah’s deep personal concerns within the historical and cultural setting of their time.
1 & 2 Kings: A Visual Commentary
Published: Mar 2024
£75.00
In this uniquely conceived and brilliantly illustrated book, Martin O’Kane, one of the leading experts internationally on biblical art, turns his attention to the narratives of 1&2 Kings. Here we encounter a large and varied cast of characters, men and women whose lives are portrayed imaginatively, ranging from exotic kings and queens and flamboyant prophets to lowly servants and other insignificant functionaries. Readers meet individuals of all ages, from the old and wise to the young and foolish, saints and sinners alike. Many of these characters, and the stories in which they appear, play a prominent part in the religious traditions and cultural worlds of three major faiths—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Interpreted according to each faith’s distinctive norms, they are popular subjects not only in the literature but particularly in the rich iconographies of the three religions.
1&2 Kings: A Visual Commentary takes the form of a commentary that focuses on the interpretation of characters and stories from the books of Kings in the visual cultures of the three monotheistic faiths. In each chapter, the first section sets out the most distinctive interpretations and appropriations of the biblical story. The second section interprets how the story has been received and interpreted in Jewish, Christian and Islamic literature. The final section details how characters or episodes from Kings re-appear in original ways in the artwork of the three religions. With its over one hundred and seventy-five full-colour images, from Christian mediaeval manuscripts and Persian and Ottoman miniature paintings to contemporary Jewish art, the volume shows why stories from 1&2 Kings feature so prominently in the artistic and cultural worlds the three religions have helped to shape.
Scholars, students and Bible readers in general will find something new and something delightful on every page of this unusually engaging work.
1 & 2 Kings: A Visual Commentary
£75.00
In this uniquely conceived and brilliantly illustrated book, Martin O’Kane, one of the leading experts internationally on biblical art, turns his attention to the narratives of 1&2 Kings. Here we encounter a large and varied cast of characters, men and women whose lives are portrayed imaginatively, ranging from exotic kings and queens and flamboyant prophets to lowly servants and other insignificant functionaries. Readers meet individuals of all ages, from the old and wise to the young and foolish, saints and sinners alike. Many of these characters, and the stories in which they appear, play a prominent part in the religious traditions and cultural worlds of three major faiths—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Interpreted according to each faith’s distinctive norms, they are popular subjects not only in the literature but particularly in the rich iconographies of the three religions.
1&2 Kings: A Visual Commentary takes the form of a commentary that focuses on the interpretation of characters and stories from the books of Kings in the visual cultures of the three monotheistic faiths. In each chapter, the first section sets out the most distinctive interpretations and appropriations of the biblical story. The second section interprets how the story has been received and interpreted in Jewish, Christian and Islamic literature. The final section details how characters or episodes from Kings re-appear in original ways in the artwork of the three religions. With its over one hundred and seventy-five full-colour images, from Christian mediaeval manuscripts and Persian and Ottoman miniature paintings to contemporary Jewish art, the volume shows why stories from 1&2 Kings feature so prominently in the artistic and cultural worlds the three religions have helped to shape.
Scholars, students and Bible readers in general will find something new and something delightful on every page of this unusually engaging work.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Revised
Published: Nov 2023
£150.00 – £250.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) is a complete revision, with over 100,000 improvements, of the original Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993 —2016).
It contains 6,300 Hebrew words not in the standard lexicon of BDB, and refers to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions. New features include: a notation of 3,700 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) identified for the first time; 700 verbal nouns (nouns derived from a verb) with their own articles (not previously shown in Hebrew lexica), 330 denominative verbs (verbs derived from a noun), and the semantic field to which every word belongs (a totally new feature for Hebrew dictionaries).
Data on synonyms have been greatly expanded, and loanwords from other languages included. Articles on personal names show (for the first time) all short forms, long forms, and alternative forms of the name, bibliographies have been updated and expanded, and 35,000 emendations of biblical texts noted. Every occurrence of each word in Classical Hebrew is noted.
All the subjects and objects of verbs are listed, and the verbs used with each noun, as well as all nouns used in a construct (genitive) relation with another noun. As with DCH, every Hebrew word in the Dictionary (except for the sections on synonyms) is followed immediately by an English translation, so that the Dictionary can be easily understood by a person with little or no Hebrew. When completed, DCHR will be 5 million words in length (equivalent to 50 standard-size books), 25% longer than DCH, and 4 times the length of BDB and HALOT.
There is a special discount price for customers subscribing to the DCHR set, and an easy payment plan (details from phoenix.bibs@sheffield.ac.uk).
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Revised
£150.00 – £250.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) is a complete revision, with over 100,000 improvements, of the original Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993 —2016).
It contains 6,300 Hebrew words not in the standard lexicon of BDB, and refers to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions. New features include: a notation of 3,700 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) identified for the first time; 700 verbal nouns (nouns derived from a verb) with their own articles (not previously shown in Hebrew lexica), 330 denominative verbs (verbs derived from a noun), and the semantic field to which every word belongs (a totally new feature for Hebrew dictionaries).
Data on synonyms have been greatly expanded, and loanwords from other languages included. Articles on personal names show (for the first time) all short forms, long forms, and alternative forms of the name, bibliographies have been updated and expanded, and 35,000 emendations of biblical texts noted. Every occurrence of each word in Classical Hebrew is noted.
All the subjects and objects of verbs are listed, and the verbs used with each noun, as well as all nouns used in a construct (genitive) relation with another noun. As with DCH, every Hebrew word in the Dictionary (except for the sections on synonyms) is followed immediately by an English translation, so that the Dictionary can be easily understood by a person with little or no Hebrew. When completed, DCHR will be 5 million words in length (equivalent to 50 standard-size books), 25% longer than DCH, and 4 times the length of BDB and HALOT.
There is a special discount price for customers subscribing to the DCHR set, and an easy payment plan (details from phoenix.bibs@sheffield.ac.uk).
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised. III. Zayin–Teth.
Published: Nov 2023
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) (2018–2028) is a complete revision in nine volumes, with over 100,000 improvements, of the original Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH) (1993–2016). When completed, DCHR will be 5 million words in length (equivalent to 50 standard-size books), 25% longer than DCH, and 4 times the length of BDB and HALOT.
The third Volume of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised, Zayin–Teth, arrives 27 years after the publication of the corresponding volume in the first edition (DCH) in 1996. Readers will find in the present volume some 32% more words (lemmas) than in the original 3rd volume, amounting to 40% more material, which consists of many thousands of additions and corrections, references to the multitude of Dead Sea Scrolls texts and inscriptions published since 1996, and a much expanded Bibliography.
The nine volumes of DCHR were originally expected to be published at intervals of approximately one year, after the first volume in August 2018. There was, after the second volume, in 2019, a pause until now. From 2019 to 2022 David J.A. Clines, prior to his final illnesses and death:
-completed every necessary editorial task for the future volumes;
-oversaw the preparation of and collation of most materials;
-and provided the means by which the project Research Associate, David Stec, could bring the remaining volumes to completion between 2023 and 2028.
David Clines wrote the Preface for this volume and David Stec completed all outstanding work including the final collation of the sets of synonyms.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised, when completed, will contain more than 6,420 Hebrew words not in BDB, and will refer to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions. New features in DCHR include: a notation of 4,285 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) identified for the first time; 717 verbal nouns (nouns derived from a verb) with their own articles (not previously shown in Hebrew lexica), 345 denominative verbs (verbs derived from a noun), and the semantic field to which every word belongs (a totally new feature for Hebrew dictionaries).
Data on synonyms have been greatly expanded, and loanwords from other languages included. Articles on personal names show (for the first time) all short forms, long forms, and alternative forms of each name, the Bibliography has been updated and expanded, and 35,000 emendations of biblical texts noted.
Every occurrence of each word in Classical Hebrew is noted. All the subjects and objects of verbs are listed, and the verbs used with each noun, as well as all nouns used in a construct (genitive) relation with another noun. As with DCH, every Hebrew word in the revised Dictionary (except for the variant forms of a word, the byforms and the sections on synonyms) is followed immediately by an English translation, so that the Dictionary can be easily understood by a person with little or no Hebrew.
Among the resources that have been reviewed for the present volume are:
-philological studies on Hebrew words, such as Aitken on blessing and cursing, Koller on tools, and Peters on cooking;
-handbooks on loanwords from other languages, such as Noonan on non-Semitic words, Mankowski on Akkadian and Muchiki on Egyptian loanwords;
-treatments of realia such as Borowski on agriculture and animals, Musselman on plants and Wiggins on weather;
-collections of inscriptions such as the second volume of Davies on Hebrew inscriptions, Lifschits and Vanderhooft on Yehud stamp impressions and Deutsch on Hebrew bullae and biblical period epigraphy.
The Bibliography itself, with over 4,000 entries, an average of 30 items— merely on words beginning Zayin to Teth—for each of the last 120 years, testifies to the vitality of scholarship on the Classical Hebrew language.
There is a special discount price for customers subscribing to the DCHR set, and an easy payment plan (details from phoenix.bibs@sheffield.ac.uk).
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised. III. Zayin–Teth.
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) (2018–2028) is a complete revision in nine volumes, with over 100,000 improvements, of the original Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH) (1993–2016). When completed, DCHR will be 5 million words in length (equivalent to 50 standard-size books), 25% longer than DCH, and 4 times the length of BDB and HALOT.
The third Volume of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised, Zayin–Teth, arrives 27 years after the publication of the corresponding volume in the first edition (DCH) in 1996. Readers will find in the present volume some 32% more words (lemmas) than in the original 3rd volume, amounting to 40% more material, which consists of many thousands of additions and corrections, references to the multitude of Dead Sea Scrolls texts and inscriptions published since 1996, and a much expanded Bibliography.
The nine volumes of DCHR were originally expected to be published at intervals of approximately one year, after the first volume in August 2018. There was, after the second volume, in 2019, a pause until now. From 2019 to 2022 David J.A. Clines, prior to his final illnesses and death:
-completed every necessary editorial task for the future volumes;
-oversaw the preparation of and collation of most materials;
-and provided the means by which the project Research Associate, David Stec, could bring the remaining volumes to completion between 2023 and 2028.
David Clines wrote the Preface for this volume and David Stec completed all outstanding work including the final collation of the sets of synonyms.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised, when completed, will contain more than 6,420 Hebrew words not in BDB, and will refer to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions. New features in DCHR include: a notation of 4,285 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) identified for the first time; 717 verbal nouns (nouns derived from a verb) with their own articles (not previously shown in Hebrew lexica), 345 denominative verbs (verbs derived from a noun), and the semantic field to which every word belongs (a totally new feature for Hebrew dictionaries).
Data on synonyms have been greatly expanded, and loanwords from other languages included. Articles on personal names show (for the first time) all short forms, long forms, and alternative forms of each name, the Bibliography has been updated and expanded, and 35,000 emendations of biblical texts noted.
Every occurrence of each word in Classical Hebrew is noted. All the subjects and objects of verbs are listed, and the verbs used with each noun, as well as all nouns used in a construct (genitive) relation with another noun. As with DCH, every Hebrew word in the revised Dictionary (except for the variant forms of a word, the byforms and the sections on synonyms) is followed immediately by an English translation, so that the Dictionary can be easily understood by a person with little or no Hebrew.
Among the resources that have been reviewed for the present volume are:
-philological studies on Hebrew words, such as Aitken on blessing and cursing, Koller on tools, and Peters on cooking;
-handbooks on loanwords from other languages, such as Noonan on non-Semitic words, Mankowski on Akkadian and Muchiki on Egyptian loanwords;
-treatments of realia such as Borowski on agriculture and animals, Musselman on plants and Wiggins on weather;
-collections of inscriptions such as the second volume of Davies on Hebrew inscriptions, Lifschits and Vanderhooft on Yehud stamp impressions and Deutsch on Hebrew bullae and biblical period epigraphy.
The Bibliography itself, with over 4,000 entries, an average of 30 items— merely on words beginning Zayin to Teth—for each of the last 120 years, testifies to the vitality of scholarship on the Classical Hebrew language.
There is a special discount price for customers subscribing to the DCHR set, and an easy payment plan (details from phoenix.bibs@sheffield.ac.uk).
The Spirit of Prophecy and Reconciliation. A Festschrift for Rickie Moore.
Published: Nov 2023
£65.00
This volume focuses on the relationship of prophecy and reconciliation, within the frame of Pentecostal hermeneutics. These themes have been prominent throughout Rickie D. Moore’s work and this collection celebrates his life and academic career—as a professor of Old Testament, a specialist in the prophetic literature, a leading voice in the development of Pentecostal hermeneutics, and an influential figure of the Cleveland School of Pentecostal theology.
The editors and contributors of this volume represent a small selection of Moore’s mentors (Walter Brueggemann and James Crenshaw), his colleagues (Lee Roy Martin, John Christopher Thomas, Blaine Charette, Amos Yong, Kimberly Alexander, and Chris Green), and former students (Caroline Reddick, Robby Waddell, Jesse Stone, David Johnson, Daniela Augustine, and Casey Cole). Their words testify to the deep, far-reaching effects of his teaching and his presence.
The essays are gathered into three main sections: the first two deal explicitly with a close reading of biblical texts from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and the last deals with the theological issues that emerge in consideration of prophetic awareness and action and the hope of intergenerational reconciliation. Moore pioneered an integrative approach to reading and teaching the Scriptures, keenly aware of his own theological and spiritual inheritance as a Pentecostal and deeply committed to the life-altering power of sacred study, skillfully blending critical self-reflection and testimony with rigorous scholarship.
The Spirit of Prophecy and Reconciliation. A Festschrift for Rickie Moore.
£65.00
This volume focuses on the relationship of prophecy and reconciliation, within the frame of Pentecostal hermeneutics. These themes have been prominent throughout Rickie D. Moore’s work and this collection celebrates his life and academic career—as a professor of Old Testament, a specialist in the prophetic literature, a leading voice in the development of Pentecostal hermeneutics, and an influential figure of the Cleveland School of Pentecostal theology.
The editors and contributors of this volume represent a small selection of Moore’s mentors (Walter Brueggemann and James Crenshaw), his colleagues (Lee Roy Martin, John Christopher Thomas, Blaine Charette, Amos Yong, Kimberly Alexander, and Chris Green), and former students (Caroline Reddick, Robby Waddell, Jesse Stone, David Johnson, Daniela Augustine, and Casey Cole). Their words testify to the deep, far-reaching effects of his teaching and his presence.
The essays are gathered into three main sections: the first two deal explicitly with a close reading of biblical texts from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and the last deals with the theological issues that emerge in consideration of prophetic awareness and action and the hope of intergenerational reconciliation. Moore pioneered an integrative approach to reading and teaching the Scriptures, keenly aware of his own theological and spiritual inheritance as a Pentecostal and deeply committed to the life-altering power of sacred study, skillfully blending critical self-reflection and testimony with rigorous scholarship.
Ruth: A Commentary
Published: Oct 2023
£58.00
After the significant and ground-breaking commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah by Lisbeth Fried, she now turns her attention to a different genre of biblical literature and to the book of Ruth. Fried approaches Ruth as folktale, specifically, a fairy tale. This new reading of Ruth allows the book to be experienced in a new way, a way infrequently recognized, that provides novel but compelling insights into the author’s intentions and goals.
Fried uses Propp’s Morphology of a Folktale to provide the guideposts for her strikingly refreshing approach. The story of Ruth is one of a stranger in a strange land. Ruth’s author explores the meaning of identity, assimilation and acceptance. He asks whether identity can be changed, whether the Judean god and the Judean nationality can be taken on voluntarily, whether assimilation is possible,
whether the stranger can or should be welcomed into the bosom of a family, and indeed, whether he or she can be trusted. These are questions we deal with today, but it was a vital issue after the return from Babylon and on into the Hellenistic period, when foreigners (first Persian and then Greek) were everywhere, and in control of everyday life, and when their foreign ways were rampant. Ruth’s author recognizes that welcoming the stranger was and indeed is a scary proposition.
Like her Commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah, the present volume includes a new translation of the book, plus text-critical notes on each verse which compares and contrasts the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac versions as well as the Aramaic Targum. The Introduction and extensive chapter commentaries provide a discussion of the larger historical and literary issues. Fried’s commentary promises to revolutionize how we read the book of Ruth.
This is the fourth volume in the Critical Commentaries series.
Ruth: A Commentary
£58.00
After the significant and ground-breaking commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah by Lisbeth Fried, she now turns her attention to a different genre of biblical literature and to the book of Ruth. Fried approaches Ruth as folktale, specifically, a fairy tale. This new reading of Ruth allows the book to be experienced in a new way, a way infrequently recognized, that provides novel but compelling insights into the author’s intentions and goals.
Fried uses Propp’s Morphology of a Folktale to provide the guideposts for her strikingly refreshing approach. The story of Ruth is one of a stranger in a strange land. Ruth’s author explores the meaning of identity, assimilation and acceptance. He asks whether identity can be changed, whether the Judean god and the Judean nationality can be taken on voluntarily, whether assimilation is possible,
whether the stranger can or should be welcomed into the bosom of a family, and indeed, whether he or she can be trusted. These are questions we deal with today, but it was a vital issue after the return from Babylon and on into the Hellenistic period, when foreigners (first Persian and then Greek) were everywhere, and in control of everyday life, and when their foreign ways were rampant. Ruth’s author recognizes that welcoming the stranger was and indeed is a scary proposition.
Like her Commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah, the present volume includes a new translation of the book, plus text-critical notes on each verse which compares and contrasts the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac versions as well as the Aramaic Targum. The Introduction and extensive chapter commentaries provide a discussion of the larger historical and literary issues. Fried’s commentary promises to revolutionize how we read the book of Ruth.
This is the fourth volume in the Critical Commentaries series.
Doing Biblical Masculinity Studies as Feminist Biblical Studies? Critical Interrogations
Published: Oct 2023
£60.00
This anthology presents a collaborative interrogation at the intersection of feminist biblical studies and biblical masculinity studies. The included essays make a compelling case for both feminist and masculist readers to recognize the advantage of engaging with each other. As they join forces, they produce research that not only brings female characters, gender issues or queer interpretation histories to the forefront but also interrogates critically male characters as well as androcentric and heteronormative conventions, viewpoints and norms. Connections to geopolitical, ethno-religious and other intersectional issues are part and parcel of the diverse range of approaches.
As a whole, then, the book expands the scholarly discourse from essentializing attention on ‘women’ or ‘men’ to a multifaceted (de)construction of gender that exposes gendered structures of domination in comprehensive ways. The shared goal is to halt reactionary gender discourses and to foster intersectional comprehension of texts and scholarship. Theoretical, historical, contemporary and textual considerations underscore the methodological, hermeneutical and exegetical value of this kind of work.
The volume is organized into three main parts. First, ‘Theoretical Considerations’, presents two essays illuminating meta-level assumptions and developments when biblical scholars embrace the interrelationship of feminist and masculinity studies in their work. Second, ‘Historical and Contemporary Considerations’, contains three essays examining the Bible in past and present cultural contexts. Third, ‘Textual Considerations’, features four essays focusing on specific passages with lenses informed by masculinity and feminist studies. All nine essays, and the three responses addressing them, invite readers to understand, critique and interrupt phallogocentric assumptions in texts, interpretation histories, and research of the Hebrew Bible.
Doing Biblical Masculinity Studies as Feminist Biblical Studies? Critical Interrogations
£60.00
This anthology presents a collaborative interrogation at the intersection of feminist biblical studies and biblical masculinity studies. The included essays make a compelling case for both feminist and masculist readers to recognize the advantage of engaging with each other. As they join forces, they produce research that not only brings female characters, gender issues or queer interpretation histories to the forefront but also interrogates critically male characters as well as androcentric and heteronormative conventions, viewpoints and norms. Connections to geopolitical, ethno-religious and other intersectional issues are part and parcel of the diverse range of approaches.
As a whole, then, the book expands the scholarly discourse from essentializing attention on ‘women’ or ‘men’ to a multifaceted (de)construction of gender that exposes gendered structures of domination in comprehensive ways. The shared goal is to halt reactionary gender discourses and to foster intersectional comprehension of texts and scholarship. Theoretical, historical, contemporary and textual considerations underscore the methodological, hermeneutical and exegetical value of this kind of work.
The volume is organized into three main parts. First, ‘Theoretical Considerations’, presents two essays illuminating meta-level assumptions and developments when biblical scholars embrace the interrelationship of feminist and masculinity studies in their work. Second, ‘Historical and Contemporary Considerations’, contains three essays examining the Bible in past and present cultural contexts. Third, ‘Textual Considerations’, features four essays focusing on specific passages with lenses informed by masculinity and feminist studies. All nine essays, and the three responses addressing them, invite readers to understand, critique and interrupt phallogocentric assumptions in texts, interpretation histories, and research of the Hebrew Bible.
Effective Stories: Genesis Through the Lens of Resilience
Published: July 2023
£70.00
This book is the first monograph-length reading of a biblical book through the lens of resilience. Megan Warner first defines the lens and outlines its boundaries, before training it upon Genesis—to draw new, and often surprising, meaning out of a much-mined text. This innovative reading responds to the need for sustained readings of biblical text, not just in the spheres of resilience and vulnerability, but also in the closely connected interpretative field of trauma.
Warner demonstrates that the authors and editors of Genesis wrote and presented ‘effective stories’—i.e. stories designed to effect change. The devastation of the destruction of Jerusalem, the exile and dispiriting return are nowhere explicitly addressed in Genesis. It relates the history of much earlier events. Nevertheless, this reading exposes intimate engagement with these seminal disasters and the formulation of responses to them. Genesis reaches back into ancient history for the purpose of preparing a new and resilient road into an uncertain future.
Amongst the contributions of this volume are:
a presentation of Genesis’ two creation stories as concerted and complementary responses to the Babylonian crisis;
the identification of an extensive book-wide project, focused on Abraham, to present a history of a united (albeit Judah-centred) Israel designed to challenge the Mosaic Yahwisms of the pre-exilic and exilic periods;
exploration of patterns of use and recruitment of female characters for political means; and
a sustained reading of the resilience of a single character, Joseph.
Warner’s critical approach exposes limitations of the use of resilience as lens, but ultimately demonstrates its potential to go beyond trauma-centred approaches, to recognise innovative, practical and above all, effective, strategies for the construction of viable futures.
Effective Stories: Genesis Through the Lens of Resilience
£70.00
This book is the first monograph-length reading of a biblical book through the lens of resilience. Megan Warner first defines the lens and outlines its boundaries, before training it upon Genesis—to draw new, and often surprising, meaning out of a much-mined text. This innovative reading responds to the need for sustained readings of biblical text, not just in the spheres of resilience and vulnerability, but also in the closely connected interpretative field of trauma.
Warner demonstrates that the authors and editors of Genesis wrote and presented ‘effective stories’—i.e. stories designed to effect change. The devastation of the destruction of Jerusalem, the exile and dispiriting return are nowhere explicitly addressed in Genesis. It relates the history of much earlier events. Nevertheless, this reading exposes intimate engagement with these seminal disasters and the formulation of responses to them. Genesis reaches back into ancient history for the purpose of preparing a new and resilient road into an uncertain future.
Amongst the contributions of this volume are:
a presentation of Genesis’ two creation stories as concerted and complementary responses to the Babylonian crisis;
the identification of an extensive book-wide project, focused on Abraham, to present a history of a united (albeit Judah-centred) Israel designed to challenge the Mosaic Yahwisms of the pre-exilic and exilic periods;
exploration of patterns of use and recruitment of female characters for political means; and
a sustained reading of the resilience of a single character, Joseph.
Warner’s critical approach exposes limitations of the use of resilience as lens, but ultimately demonstrates its potential to go beyond trauma-centred approaches, to recognise innovative, practical and above all, effective, strategies for the construction of viable futures.
The Way to Zion in Isaiah 40-55: Beyond New Exodus or Metaphor
Published: Jun 2023
£70.00
Entering into a longstanding debate in Isaiah research on 'way' language in chapters 40–55 comes The Way to Zion in Isaiah 40–55. This discussion concerns whether the 'way' is best understood as a new exodus of the exiles from Babylon or instead as a metaphor signifying the transformation of Jerusalem from a place of judgement to a place of redemption.
Caleb Gundlach’s study contributes to this debate by arguing that the pilgrimage to Zion becomes a prevalent aspect of the 'way' theme in Isaiah 40–55 and influences how the homecoming is envisioned in these chapters. Firstly, it lays out criteria for recognizing the pilgrimage to Zion as the predominant journey type in Isaiah 49–55. It then explores the relationship of this pilgrimage journey to the major theme of Zion’s restoration within Isaiah 40–55, a theme also emphasized by metaphorical interpretations of the 'way'.
Resituating the homecoming material within the perspective of pilgrimage to Zion sheds light on other interpretive debates on Isaiah 40–55, including:
- the Babylonian or Judahite provenance for the text;
- emphasis on either the text’s compositional stages or its thematic coherence;
- thematic tensions, such as between Zion’s restoration and the Servant’s mission to the nations.
Reconsidering Isaiah’s 'way' imagery under the paradigm of the pilgrimage to Zion provides new avenues for negotiating these issues and takes a further step towards understanding how Isaiah 40–55 coheres as a meaningful and complex unity.
The Way to Zion in Isaiah 40-55: Beyond New Exodus or Metaphor
£70.00
Entering into a longstanding debate in Isaiah research on 'way' language in chapters 40–55 comes The Way to Zion in Isaiah 40–55. This discussion concerns whether the 'way' is best understood as a new exodus of the exiles from Babylon or instead as a metaphor signifying the transformation of Jerusalem from a place of judgement to a place of redemption.
Caleb Gundlach’s study contributes to this debate by arguing that the pilgrimage to Zion becomes a prevalent aspect of the 'way' theme in Isaiah 40–55 and influences how the homecoming is envisioned in these chapters. Firstly, it lays out criteria for recognizing the pilgrimage to Zion as the predominant journey type in Isaiah 49–55. It then explores the relationship of this pilgrimage journey to the major theme of Zion’s restoration within Isaiah 40–55, a theme also emphasized by metaphorical interpretations of the 'way'.
Resituating the homecoming material within the perspective of pilgrimage to Zion sheds light on other interpretive debates on Isaiah 40–55, including:
- the Babylonian or Judahite provenance for the text;
- emphasis on either the text’s compositional stages or its thematic coherence;
- thematic tensions, such as between Zion’s restoration and the Servant’s mission to the nations.
Reconsidering Isaiah’s 'way' imagery under the paradigm of the pilgrimage to Zion provides new avenues for negotiating these issues and takes a further step towards understanding how Isaiah 40–55 coheres as a meaningful and complex unity.
When Psychology Meets the Bible
Published: Jun 2023
£85.00
This much-needed biblical studies encounter with the physiological and social sciences demonstrates ways these disciplines relate closely. A group of 17 scholars from across the world and from various psychological persuasions have considered texts—from many parts of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The essays recognise the human emotional need of the embodied mind in both literary characters and readers, and respond to it with empathic understanding.
The newness of interpretative approach in this collection anchors its understanding of the texts within recognised, scientific, psychological theories. Refreshing, even exciting, readings are discerned by focusing understanding of the human mind on those writing, and existing in, the biblical texts. This initiative is in significant contrast to a long history of implied psychological exegesis.
Where else, but in the Bible, can such a wide range of human actions, interactions, motivations and tragedies be studied in a variety of social situations? Showcasing the psychological implications of these texts serves as an invitation to continue this new momentum in research. At the same time, the freedom to explore the Bible psychologically has brought the most urgent and pressing psychological struggles to the surface, proving the relevance of all these biblical texts in our present world.
When Psychology Meets the Bible
£85.00
This much-needed biblical studies encounter with the physiological and social sciences demonstrates ways these disciplines relate closely. A group of 17 scholars from across the world and from various psychological persuasions have considered texts—from many parts of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The essays recognise the human emotional need of the embodied mind in both literary characters and readers, and respond to it with empathic understanding.
The newness of interpretative approach in this collection anchors its understanding of the texts within recognised, scientific, psychological theories. Refreshing, even exciting, readings are discerned by focusing understanding of the human mind on those writing, and existing in, the biblical texts. This initiative is in significant contrast to a long history of implied psychological exegesis.
Where else, but in the Bible, can such a wide range of human actions, interactions, motivations and tragedies be studied in a variety of social situations? Showcasing the psychological implications of these texts serves as an invitation to continue this new momentum in research. At the same time, the freedom to explore the Bible psychologically has brought the most urgent and pressing psychological struggles to the surface, proving the relevance of all these biblical texts in our present world.
From Qumran to Jude: A History of Social Crisis at Qumran and in Early Jewish Christianity
Published: Jun 2023
£65.00
Many have noted the Qumran-like language of Jude. Chris Armitage provides a detailed comparative consideration of the similarities between Jude and the Dead Sea Scrolls peshers in the Hebrew Bible. The writers, in each of these texts, frequently appeal to examples of eschatological punishment for deviant theology and conduct, from the Hebrew Bible.
This study delves systematically into Jude’s use of pesher technique—appropriating a Hebrew Bible example of deviant teaching and behaviour and its eschatological consequences and applying it to the present—and shows, across the divide of Koine Greek and Classical Hebrew, that this is same technique as found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Armitage infers that similar socio-theological crises faced Jude’s and the Qumran community, requiring each to generate literature containing purity and pollution rhetoric, derived from remodelling Hebrew Bible predictions of eschatological punishment to fit its own time, in order to ensure internal solidarity.
From Qumran to Jude: A History of Social Crisis at Qumran and in Early Jewish Christianity
£65.00
Many have noted the Qumran-like language of Jude. Chris Armitage provides a detailed comparative consideration of the similarities between Jude and the Dead Sea Scrolls peshers in the Hebrew Bible. The writers, in each of these texts, frequently appeal to examples of eschatological punishment for deviant theology and conduct, from the Hebrew Bible.
This study delves systematically into Jude’s use of pesher technique—appropriating a Hebrew Bible example of deviant teaching and behaviour and its eschatological consequences and applying it to the present—and shows, across the divide of Koine Greek and Classical Hebrew, that this is same technique as found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Armitage infers that similar socio-theological crises faced Jude’s and the Qumran community, requiring each to generate literature containing purity and pollution rhetoric, derived from remodelling Hebrew Bible predictions of eschatological punishment to fit its own time, in order to ensure internal solidarity.
Judges: Once Upon a Time in Israel
Published: Jun 2023
£60.00
Judges is the Bible’s end-of-the-frontier epic. It depicts the first generations of Israelite life in Canaan and portrays a set of memorable protagonists, the “judges,” who were wild enough to tame a wilderness, but too wild to persist into the next era of royal courts, central shrines, and political states. The core of Judges consists of a series of narratives about the outlaws, warlords and war-ladies, mercenaries, and jackleg and priests and prophets from ancient Ephraim whose exploits were recounted in a series of redacted documents that, to the chagrin of pious readers over the centuries, ended up in the Bible, of all places.
There is Ehud, the left-handed assassin on a grim solo labyrinthine mission in and out of an enemy fortress. There is Deborah, the alpha female who, in one chapter, commands an army and, in another, is credited with uttering her eponymous song, which deserves to be counted among the world’s great war poetry. There is Jael, the man-slaughtering Bedouin woman who is handy with a hammer. There is Gideon, the insecure hero who leads, in one story, an outnumbered elite band of warriors to victory over an enemy force of uncountable proportions and, in another story, a clannish vendetta filled with torture, arson, and revenge killings. There is the tale of Abimelech which traces the rise and fall of a gangster. There is Jephthah, the outcast summoned to rescue his tribe when they need his desperado skill set, but whose rash vow has fatal consequences for his daughter. Finally, there is Samson, one of folk literature’s most memorable characterizations, a walking, talking incarnation of unshaved, unbalanced hyper-masculinity.
This reading of the tales of Judges as a set of adventure stories from the early centuries of alphabetic literacy requires that we dig through mounds of didactic, theological, moralistic, messianic, and nationalistic landfill in order to reclaim the full glory—and horror—of their dark violence and eroticism, as well as to marvel at the coarse folk poetry in the tales’ narration and dialogue.
Judges: Once Upon a Time in Israel
£60.00
Judges is the Bible’s end-of-the-frontier epic. It depicts the first generations of Israelite life in Canaan and portrays a set of memorable protagonists, the “judges,” who were wild enough to tame a wilderness, but too wild to persist into the next era of royal courts, central shrines, and political states. The core of Judges consists of a series of narratives about the outlaws, warlords and war-ladies, mercenaries, and jackleg and priests and prophets from ancient Ephraim whose exploits were recounted in a series of redacted documents that, to the chagrin of pious readers over the centuries, ended up in the Bible, of all places.
There is Ehud, the left-handed assassin on a grim solo labyrinthine mission in and out of an enemy fortress. There is Deborah, the alpha female who, in one chapter, commands an army and, in another, is credited with uttering her eponymous song, which deserves to be counted among the world’s great war poetry. There is Jael, the man-slaughtering Bedouin woman who is handy with a hammer. There is Gideon, the insecure hero who leads, in one story, an outnumbered elite band of warriors to victory over an enemy force of uncountable proportions and, in another story, a clannish vendetta filled with torture, arson, and revenge killings. There is the tale of Abimelech which traces the rise and fall of a gangster. There is Jephthah, the outcast summoned to rescue his tribe when they need his desperado skill set, but whose rash vow has fatal consequences for his daughter. Finally, there is Samson, one of folk literature’s most memorable characterizations, a walking, talking incarnation of unshaved, unbalanced hyper-masculinity.
This reading of the tales of Judges as a set of adventure stories from the early centuries of alphabetic literacy requires that we dig through mounds of didactic, theological, moralistic, messianic, and nationalistic landfill in order to reclaim the full glory—and horror—of their dark violence and eroticism, as well as to marvel at the coarse folk poetry in the tales’ narration and dialogue.
Nahum, Habakkuk and Malachi
Published: May 2023
£20.00 – £60.00
Nahum, ironically named ‘the compassionate one’, Habakkuk who laments God’s failure to answer his questions about justice and violence, and the eponymous Malachi are the three characters whose record is the focus of this reading. The commentary offers a close reading of the Hebrew text of each book along with its rhetorical features. The three books are read from within their several ancient contexts, literary, cultural and theological.
Only Habakkuk is specifically identified as a ‘prophet’, while Nahum’s and Malachi’s editors studiously avoid the term, raising a question about why these three books have been honoured with a place in the Scroll of the Twelve rather than somewhere else. Each book is titled a Massa’ by its editor, identifying them as examples of an emerging literary trope that combines both prophetic and wisdom elements in a didactic purpose.
Nahum is identified not as a prophet but as a Visionary. He saw the dire situation of his people and expressed his longing for God’s intervention. The God of whom he spoke was one ‘jealous, and avenging’, one he longed would act against the overwhelming power of the Assyrians that threatened his people.
Habakkuk, though identified as a prophet, shows no evidence of any prophetic activity. He laments the failure of justice and consequent violence as witnessed (1.2-4). The Lament-form used has been torn in two by the editor for the purpose of inserting a Dialogue with God (1.5-2.20), a Dialogue that fails completely to answer Habakkuk’s ‘Why?’ questions in 1.1-2. The concluding portion of the Lament (3.2-19) witnesses to Habakkuk’s continued trust in his God despite the divine failure to resolve his questions.
The eponymous ‘Malachi’ is identified as a Messenger, never as a prophet, as the book reports six different and independent messages covering issues that arose during an extended period in early postexilic Judaean life. Using a frame of six Question-Response forms that feature rhetorical questions, his audiences deny the validity of each negative charge against them.
Graham Ogden has been a United Bible Societies’ Translation Consultant. He lives in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
Nahum, Habakkuk and Malachi
£20.00 – £60.00
Nahum, ironically named ‘the compassionate one’, Habakkuk who laments God’s failure to answer his questions about justice and violence, and the eponymous Malachi are the three characters whose record is the focus of this reading. The commentary offers a close reading of the Hebrew text of each book along with its rhetorical features. The three books are read from within their several ancient contexts, literary, cultural and theological.
Only Habakkuk is specifically identified as a ‘prophet’, while Nahum’s and Malachi’s editors studiously avoid the term, raising a question about why these three books have been honoured with a place in the Scroll of the Twelve rather than somewhere else. Each book is titled a Massa’ by its editor, identifying them as examples of an emerging literary trope that combines both prophetic and wisdom elements in a didactic purpose.
Nahum is identified not as a prophet but as a Visionary. He saw the dire situation of his people and expressed his longing for God’s intervention. The God of whom he spoke was one ‘jealous, and avenging’, one he longed would act against the overwhelming power of the Assyrians that threatened his people.
Habakkuk, though identified as a prophet, shows no evidence of any prophetic activity. He laments the failure of justice and consequent violence as witnessed (1.2-4). The Lament-form used has been torn in two by the editor for the purpose of inserting a Dialogue with God (1.5-2.20), a Dialogue that fails completely to answer Habakkuk’s ‘Why?’ questions in 1.1-2. The concluding portion of the Lament (3.2-19) witnesses to Habakkuk’s continued trust in his God despite the divine failure to resolve his questions.
The eponymous ‘Malachi’ is identified as a Messenger, never as a prophet, as the book reports six different and independent messages covering issues that arose during an extended period in early postexilic Judaean life. Using a frame of six Question-Response forms that feature rhetorical questions, his audiences deny the validity of each negative charge against them.
Graham Ogden has been a United Bible Societies’ Translation Consultant. He lives in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
Joban Papers
Published: Apr 2023
£75.00
In this volume, David J.A. Clines—known for his magisterial three-volume commentary on Job in the Word Biblical Commentary series (1989–2011)—brings together a sequence of 27 of his papers on his favourite biblical book from a variety of publications.
In two sections, the wide-ranging Syntheses and the more focused Probes on particular chapters, this collection is a necessary adjunct to his commentary.
Among the titles in the Syntheses are:
- On the Poetic Achievement of the Book of Job
- Why Is There a Book of Job, and What Does It Do to You If You Read It?
- Job’s Fifth Friend: An Ethical Critique of the Book of Job
- Deconstructing the Book of Job
Among the Probes the reader will find:
- False Naivety in the Prologue to Job
- In Search of the Indian Job
- Quarter Days Gone: Job 24 and the Absence of God
- Those Golden Days: Job and the Perils of Nostalgia
- Putting Elihu in his Place: A Proposal for the Relocation of Job 32–37
- One or Two Things You May Not Know about the Universe
- The Worth of Animals in the Book of Job
- Job’s Crafty Conclusion, and Seven Interesting Things about the Epilogue to Job
Joban Papers
£75.00
In this volume, David J.A. Clines—known for his magisterial three-volume commentary on Job in the Word Biblical Commentary series (1989–2011)—brings together a sequence of 27 of his papers on his favourite biblical book from a variety of publications.
In two sections, the wide-ranging Syntheses and the more focused Probes on particular chapters, this collection is a necessary adjunct to his commentary.
Among the titles in the Syntheses are:
- On the Poetic Achievement of the Book of Job
- Why Is There a Book of Job, and What Does It Do to You If You Read It?
- Job’s Fifth Friend: An Ethical Critique of the Book of Job
- Deconstructing the Book of Job
Among the Probes the reader will find:
- False Naivety in the Prologue to Job
- In Search of the Indian Job
- Quarter Days Gone: Job 24 and the Absence of God
- Those Golden Days: Job and the Perils of Nostalgia
- Putting Elihu in his Place: A Proposal for the Relocation of Job 32–37
- One or Two Things You May Not Know about the Universe
- The Worth of Animals in the Book of Job
- Job’s Crafty Conclusion, and Seven Interesting Things about the Epilogue to Job
Play the Man! Biblical Imperatives to Masculinity
Published: Apr 2023
£75.00
David J.A. Clines argues in Play the Man! that masculinity is a script, written for men by their societies, a script that men in their various cultures act out their whole lives long: 'no one is born a man'. He has been quick to deploy the insights of sociologists, historians, educationists, health professionals, psychologists and other scholars investigating masculinity in the contemporary and ancient worlds.
The book's title is a recognition of masculinity as performance, and the Bible's depictions of males in action as far more than information or entertainment; they function as demands on the men who read them or have them read to them. Hence the subtitle, Biblical Imperatives to Masculinity, presumes that every biblical reference to the masculine is some kind of authoritative command.
Clines—in this collection of writings prepared across three decades—has seen biblical texts as an excellent test bed for research into masculinity in one ancient culture as well as being an indubitable influence upon views and practices of masculinity in our own time.
The bulk of the book consists of studies of individual characters and texts of the Bible, analysing and profiling the masculinity that is there attested, assumed and encouraged. In conclusion, Clines reflects on the continuing impact of the biblical imperatives to masculinity, their effect on men, women and religion, in our own time.
Play the Man! Biblical Imperatives to Masculinity
£75.00
David J.A. Clines argues in Play the Man! that masculinity is a script, written for men by their societies, a script that men in their various cultures act out their whole lives long: 'no one is born a man'. He has been quick to deploy the insights of sociologists, historians, educationists, health professionals, psychologists and other scholars investigating masculinity in the contemporary and ancient worlds.
The book's title is a recognition of masculinity as performance, and the Bible's depictions of males in action as far more than information or entertainment; they function as demands on the men who read them or have them read to them. Hence the subtitle, Biblical Imperatives to Masculinity, presumes that every biblical reference to the masculine is some kind of authoritative command.
Clines—in this collection of writings prepared across three decades—has seen biblical texts as an excellent test bed for research into masculinity in one ancient culture as well as being an indubitable influence upon views and practices of masculinity in our own time.
The bulk of the book consists of studies of individual characters and texts of the Bible, analysing and profiling the masculinity that is there attested, assumed and encouraged. In conclusion, Clines reflects on the continuing impact of the biblical imperatives to masculinity, their effect on men, women and religion, in our own time.
Patronage in Ancient Palestine and in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader
Published: May 2022
£80.00
Patron—client relationships have been documented and studied by anthropologists and sociologists since the 1950s. They are known in rural settings and urban locations alike, and virtually in every region of the world. But it was only in the last decades of the twentieth century that this analytical model was slowly incorporated into the socio-political interpretation of biblical texts and other ancient Near Eastern sources. The patronage model proves to be a useful interpretative tool, casting new light on many aspects of the history of Israel and of other socio-political communities in the southern Levant. Moreover, the concept of patron—client relationships clarifies many of the implicit socio-politics found in the narratives and motifs of several biblical books.
This remarkable and comprehensive new reader collects over 20 studies by renowned scholars dealing with different aspects and situations of patronage: in the context of Southwest Asia (the 'Middle East') during the second millennium bce, in relation to the history of ancient Palestine during the first millennium bce, and as well with references to patron—client ties in texts of the Hebrew Bible. While these selected papers do not presume to offer an exhaustive treatment of periods, historical cases and themes in ancient Palestine and in Hebrew Bible literature, they variously illustrate the many possibilities of the concept of patronage to elucidate them.
Patronage in Ancient Palestine and in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader
£80.00
Patron—client relationships have been documented and studied by anthropologists and sociologists since the 1950s. They are known in rural settings and urban locations alike, and virtually in every region of the world. But it was only in the last decades of the twentieth century that this analytical model was slowly incorporated into the socio-political interpretation of biblical texts and other ancient Near Eastern sources. The patronage model proves to be a useful interpretative tool, casting new light on many aspects of the history of Israel and of other socio-political communities in the southern Levant. Moreover, the concept of patron—client relationships clarifies many of the implicit socio-politics found in the narratives and motifs of several biblical books.
This remarkable and comprehensive new reader collects over 20 studies by renowned scholars dealing with different aspects and situations of patronage: in the context of Southwest Asia (the 'Middle East') during the second millennium bce, in relation to the history of ancient Palestine during the first millennium bce, and as well with references to patron—client ties in texts of the Hebrew Bible. While these selected papers do not presume to offer an exhaustive treatment of periods, historical cases and themes in ancient Palestine and in Hebrew Bible literature, they variously illustrate the many possibilities of the concept of patronage to elucidate them.
From Words to Meaning: Studies on Old Testament Language and Theology for David J. Reimer
Published: Dec 2021
£60.00
David J. Reimer, to whom this volume is dedicated, has taught over twenty years at New College in Edinburgh. During this time, he has published and supervised many projects in the areas of Hebrew language study and Old Testament theology. These two disciplines often stay each in their own territory. As a token of recognition to David's scholarship, From Words to Meaning is designed to bridge this gap and to demonstrate afresh how speaking theologically about the Old Testament is enriched when it focuses on how these ancient texts communicate their message.
With its analysis of selected literary aspects, words, and theological questions, the volume contributes to current methodological discussions in both disciplines. Each of its twelve essays provides a case study that models the crossover between theology and language study. Alongside up-to-date discussions about Bible translation and biblical theology, the volume sheds new light on old questions, such as resurrection and Christology in the Old Testament. Inasmuch as all of these items are established topics in Old Testament theology, From Words to Meaning highlights time and again how close attention to Hebrew language results in a more nuanced understanding. This holds true especially for the many exercises of lexical semantics and pragmatics that are included in the volume. Readers will benefit from the careful study of the words 'to save' and 'glory', but will also gain fresh insights into the rhetoric of David's tears, Hosea's culinary metaphors, and Jeremiah's speech quotation.
The combination of well-established writers and emerging new voices results in a rounded sample of how we may move 'from words to meaning'. With its expertise and methodological orientation, the volume is an excellent resource for all scholars who are interested in the interplay of theology and language in the field of Old Testament studies.
From Words to Meaning: Studies on Old Testament Language and Theology for David J. Reimer
£60.00
David J. Reimer, to whom this volume is dedicated, has taught over twenty years at New College in Edinburgh. During this time, he has published and supervised many projects in the areas of Hebrew language study and Old Testament theology. These two disciplines often stay each in their own territory. As a token of recognition to David's scholarship, From Words to Meaning is designed to bridge this gap and to demonstrate afresh how speaking theologically about the Old Testament is enriched when it focuses on how these ancient texts communicate their message.
With its analysis of selected literary aspects, words, and theological questions, the volume contributes to current methodological discussions in both disciplines. Each of its twelve essays provides a case study that models the crossover between theology and language study. Alongside up-to-date discussions about Bible translation and biblical theology, the volume sheds new light on old questions, such as resurrection and Christology in the Old Testament. Inasmuch as all of these items are established topics in Old Testament theology, From Words to Meaning highlights time and again how close attention to Hebrew language results in a more nuanced understanding. This holds true especially for the many exercises of lexical semantics and pragmatics that are included in the volume. Readers will benefit from the careful study of the words 'to save' and 'glory', but will also gain fresh insights into the rhetoric of David's tears, Hosea's culinary metaphors, and Jeremiah's speech quotation.
The combination of well-established writers and emerging new voices results in a rounded sample of how we may move 'from words to meaning'. With its expertise and methodological orientation, the volume is an excellent resource for all scholars who are interested in the interplay of theology and language in the field of Old Testament studies.
Women and Gender in the Bible: Texts, Intersections, Intertexts
Published: Dec 2021
£60.00
This volume has its origins in a conference entitled 'Women and Gender in the Bible and the Ancient World' (University of Glasgow, 2019), a symposium with a deliberately broad scope to encourage fresh research that might transcend already-defined categories. With responses from both emerging and established academics, as well as professionals outside the academy, this collection offers a breadth of explorations of the gendered landscapes and horizons that construct, and subvert, biblical womanhood, and its reception. Familiar figures such as Mary Magdalene, Eve, and Tamar are treated alongside unnamed women whose anonymity is revealing.
Exploring a range of performances from ritual to resistance, and from storytelling to sex work, the contributors aim to capture connections between biblical figures and their socio-political worlds, their afterlives and reworkings, and their continued resonances for today's readers and scholars of the Bible. Questions are raised about gendered status, transformation, territorialization and oppression of biblical women: the significance and complexity of their relationships within and outwith the texts that both constitute their confinements and provoke new lineages.
Women and Gender in the Bible offers challenging perspectives on our understanding of how we can establish creative transactions between ancient patriarchal cultures and modern post-industrial cultures via counter-readings, misreadings and outraged readings. Casting off the intolerable weight of hundreds of years of androcentric reception is both a starting point and an ultimate goal.
Women and Gender in the Bible: Texts, Intersections, Intertexts
£60.00
This volume has its origins in a conference entitled 'Women and Gender in the Bible and the Ancient World' (University of Glasgow, 2019), a symposium with a deliberately broad scope to encourage fresh research that might transcend already-defined categories. With responses from both emerging and established academics, as well as professionals outside the academy, this collection offers a breadth of explorations of the gendered landscapes and horizons that construct, and subvert, biblical womanhood, and its reception. Familiar figures such as Mary Magdalene, Eve, and Tamar are treated alongside unnamed women whose anonymity is revealing.
Exploring a range of performances from ritual to resistance, and from storytelling to sex work, the contributors aim to capture connections between biblical figures and their socio-political worlds, their afterlives and reworkings, and their continued resonances for today's readers and scholars of the Bible. Questions are raised about gendered status, transformation, territorialization and oppression of biblical women: the significance and complexity of their relationships within and outwith the texts that both constitute their confinements and provoke new lineages.
Women and Gender in the Bible offers challenging perspectives on our understanding of how we can establish creative transactions between ancient patriarchal cultures and modern post-industrial cultures via counter-readings, misreadings and outraged readings. Casting off the intolerable weight of hundreds of years of androcentric reception is both a starting point and an ultimate goal.
Epigraphy, Iconography, and the Bible
Published: Dec 2021
£85.00
The study of the Bible has long been illuminated by 'light from the East' (in the famous phrase of Adolf Deissmann in 1908). Almost daily, new artifacts and inscriptions are announced that will have an impact on how the Bible is read and understood.
Following Meir Lubetski's SPP collection New Seals and Inscriptions, Hebrew, Idumean and Cuneiform in 2007 and his Festschrift, Visions of Life in Biblical Times in 2015, the present volume garners papers from a wide and distinguished panel of specialists in the Ancient Near East that revisit former assumptions and present new insights on the relevance of its material culture to the Bible.
Among the papers, Alan Millard reviews the issue of the use of the early alphabets, André Lemaire revisits the Mesha stele (the Moabite Stone), and Pieter Gert van der Veen takes a fresh look at the seal of Shema with its famous lion (still adorning the cover of the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament). Bezalel Porten contributes a fascinating study, illustrated by twenty colour diagrams, of documents on papyrus or ostraca requesting provisions from storerooms—an insight into the practicalities of daily administrative life in Egypt, Idumea and Israel.
There are papers also on the arks of the Hebrew Bible (Yigal Levin), on alleged identifications of Hebrew kings in inscriptions (Lawrence Mykytiuk), on literary images in the Tell Fekheriye inscription and the book of Lamentations (Gideon Kotzé) and on Judaean pillar figurines of women that are ubiquitous in archaeological excavations from Iron Age Judah.
Epigraphy, Iconography, and the Bible, in sum, is something of a cornucopia of new and revised data about the Hebrew Bible in its ancient context, intelligible to scholars, students and a more general public alike.
Epigraphy, Iconography, and the Bible
£85.00
The study of the Bible has long been illuminated by 'light from the East' (in the famous phrase of Adolf Deissmann in 1908). Almost daily, new artifacts and inscriptions are announced that will have an impact on how the Bible is read and understood.
Following Meir Lubetski's SPP collection New Seals and Inscriptions, Hebrew, Idumean and Cuneiform in 2007 and his Festschrift, Visions of Life in Biblical Times in 2015, the present volume garners papers from a wide and distinguished panel of specialists in the Ancient Near East that revisit former assumptions and present new insights on the relevance of its material culture to the Bible.
Among the papers, Alan Millard reviews the issue of the use of the early alphabets, André Lemaire revisits the Mesha stele (the Moabite Stone), and Pieter Gert van der Veen takes a fresh look at the seal of Shema with its famous lion (still adorning the cover of the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament). Bezalel Porten contributes a fascinating study, illustrated by twenty colour diagrams, of documents on papyrus or ostraca requesting provisions from storerooms—an insight into the practicalities of daily administrative life in Egypt, Idumea and Israel.
There are papers also on the arks of the Hebrew Bible (Yigal Levin), on alleged identifications of Hebrew kings in inscriptions (Lawrence Mykytiuk), on literary images in the Tell Fekheriye inscription and the book of Lamentations (Gideon Kotzé) and on Judaean pillar figurines of women that are ubiquitous in archaeological excavations from Iron Age Judah.
Epigraphy, Iconography, and the Bible, in sum, is something of a cornucopia of new and revised data about the Hebrew Bible in its ancient context, intelligible to scholars, students and a more general public alike.
Nehemiah: A Commentary
Published: Oct 2021
£60.00
Lisbeth Fried’s commentary on Nehemiah is the second instalment of her two-volume commentary on Ezra–Nehemiah. The first instalment, Ezra, was published by Sheffield Phoenix in 2015. Like her commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah too takes full advantage of recent results in archaeology and numismatics, as well as in the mechanisms of Persian and Hellenistic rule, and in the influence of the Hellenistic and Maccabean Wars on Jewish writings.
Like her Ezra, the present volume includes a new translation of the book of Nehemiah, plus text-critical notes on each verse which compare and contrast the Greek, Latin and Syriac versions. The Introduction and extensive chapter commentaries provide a discussion of the larger historical and literary issues.
Although not finalized until the Maccabean period, the book of Nehemiah contains a temple foundation document from the time of Darius I, a story of rebuilding and dedicating a city wall around Jerusalem in the mid-fifth century, and a memoir from a fifth-century governor of Judah. Numerous additions and lists that date from the Hellenistic and Maccabean periods complete the book.
Fried concludes that the book of Nehemiah contains two separate first-person reports—one by the wall-builder, wine steward of Artaxerxes I, whose name we do not know, and one by Yeho’ezer, a fifth-century governor of Judah. We know his name from seals found at the governor’s mansion at Ramat Raḥel. Nehemiah, whose full name was actually Nehemiah Attiršata ben Ḥacaliah, neither built the wall around Jerusalem nor served as a fifth-century governor of Judah, Fried argues. Rather, he was a Persian Jew who had charge of the temple priesthood under Zerubbabel in the days of Darius I.
Fried’s commentary promises to revolutionize how we read the book of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah: A Commentary
£60.00
Lisbeth Fried’s commentary on Nehemiah is the second instalment of her two-volume commentary on Ezra–Nehemiah. The first instalment, Ezra, was published by Sheffield Phoenix in 2015. Like her commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah too takes full advantage of recent results in archaeology and numismatics, as well as in the mechanisms of Persian and Hellenistic rule, and in the influence of the Hellenistic and Maccabean Wars on Jewish writings.
Like her Ezra, the present volume includes a new translation of the book of Nehemiah, plus text-critical notes on each verse which compare and contrast the Greek, Latin and Syriac versions. The Introduction and extensive chapter commentaries provide a discussion of the larger historical and literary issues.
Although not finalized until the Maccabean period, the book of Nehemiah contains a temple foundation document from the time of Darius I, a story of rebuilding and dedicating a city wall around Jerusalem in the mid-fifth century, and a memoir from a fifth-century governor of Judah. Numerous additions and lists that date from the Hellenistic and Maccabean periods complete the book.
Fried concludes that the book of Nehemiah contains two separate first-person reports—one by the wall-builder, wine steward of Artaxerxes I, whose name we do not know, and one by Yeho’ezer, a fifth-century governor of Judah. We know his name from seals found at the governor’s mansion at Ramat Raḥel. Nehemiah, whose full name was actually Nehemiah Attiršata ben Ḥacaliah, neither built the wall around Jerusalem nor served as a fifth-century governor of Judah, Fried argues. Rather, he was a Persian Jew who had charge of the temple priesthood under Zerubbabel in the days of Darius I.
Fried’s commentary promises to revolutionize how we read the book of Nehemiah.
Herald of Good Tidings: Essays on the Bible, Prophecy, and the Hope of Israel in Honour of Antti Laato
Published: Sep 2021
£90.00
This volume is dedicated to the prominent biblical scholar, Antti Laato, of Åbo Akademi University, Finland, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. In his extensive and many-faceted scholarly work spanning more than 35 years, there have been some focal points. One has been the Book of Isaiah, and, more broadly, the prophetic books and the messianic hopes they contain. From the 2010s onwards, another aspect has gained more visibility in Antti Laato's work: the reception history of the Bible —the Hebrew Bible in particular —in both Judaism and Christianity. Herald of Good Tidings is a collection of papers, by nineteen scholars mainly from the Nordic countries, on the heralds of redemption and hope, the prophets —their voice, words and deeds, and on the status and role of these prophets.
The first part of the volume concerns the world of the Hebrew Bible: biblical prophetism, the prophets themselves and their books.
The second part is devoted to the continuing message of the prophets in its post-biblical Jewish and Christian reception. A key aspect is their message of a bright future, whether about hope in general or about the Messiah. Their words are constantly being interpreted, sometimes personalities of the post-biblical era also being seen as prophetic figures.
The brief third part of the book illustrates the ongoing influence of the prophets in times yet more distant than the post-biblical age from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.
Herald of Good Tidings: Essays on the Bible, Prophecy, and the Hope of Israel in Honour of Antti Laato
£90.00
This volume is dedicated to the prominent biblical scholar, Antti Laato, of Åbo Akademi University, Finland, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. In his extensive and many-faceted scholarly work spanning more than 35 years, there have been some focal points. One has been the Book of Isaiah, and, more broadly, the prophetic books and the messianic hopes they contain. From the 2010s onwards, another aspect has gained more visibility in Antti Laato's work: the reception history of the Bible —the Hebrew Bible in particular —in both Judaism and Christianity. Herald of Good Tidings is a collection of papers, by nineteen scholars mainly from the Nordic countries, on the heralds of redemption and hope, the prophets —their voice, words and deeds, and on the status and role of these prophets.
The first part of the volume concerns the world of the Hebrew Bible: biblical prophetism, the prophets themselves and their books.
The second part is devoted to the continuing message of the prophets in its post-biblical Jewish and Christian reception. A key aspect is their message of a bright future, whether about hope in general or about the Messiah. Their words are constantly being interpreted, sometimes personalities of the post-biblical era also being seen as prophetic figures.
The brief third part of the book illustrates the ongoing influence of the prophets in times yet more distant than the post-biblical age from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.
Sequencing the Hebrew Bible: The Order of the Books
Published: July 2021
£55.00
If the order of the Hebrew Bible's books is significant, as many believe, why did differing arrangements of the Hebrew Bible emerge over time? This is a crucial question for Bible readers generally and especially for scholars of compilational criticism —the study of how the books of the Hebrew Bible were arranged in their various orders. Yet few compilational critics offer a solution to this problem and several fail even to recognize the issue. Sequencing the Hebrew Bible makes the novel proposal that multiple orders are part of the compositional intent of the framers of the Hebrew Bible. That is, those responsible for producing the final form of the Hebrew Bible's text created multiple ways in which its books could be meaningfully arranged. No single arrangement, as found in ancient manuscripts and lists of the books, can fully account for the compositional intent of these framers. The task of the compilational critic is to identify these arrangements, classify them, and evaluate the effect of these varying arrangements. This solution has implications both for the production of modern Bibles and for biblical theology. While some interested in compilational criticism argue that modern Bibles should be reorganized to reflect earlier arrangements of the biblical books, this study would suggest that such attempts would be limited in value. For only one of the several attested arrangements could be presented in any printed Bible. As for the idea of attempting to arrange the Bible chronologically, this study argues that to do so would inhibit the reader's understanding of the design of the biblical authors. Since biblical theology bridges the gap between historical-critical and theological studies, internal tensions between historical and theological analyses are often apparent within biblical theology. Compilational criticism helps to relieve these tensions by showing how theology underlies the formation of the Hebrew Bible.
Sequencing the Hebrew Bible: The Order of the Books
£55.00
If the order of the Hebrew Bible's books is significant, as many believe, why did differing arrangements of the Hebrew Bible emerge over time? This is a crucial question for Bible readers generally and especially for scholars of compilational criticism —the study of how the books of the Hebrew Bible were arranged in their various orders. Yet few compilational critics offer a solution to this problem and several fail even to recognize the issue. Sequencing the Hebrew Bible makes the novel proposal that multiple orders are part of the compositional intent of the framers of the Hebrew Bible. That is, those responsible for producing the final form of the Hebrew Bible's text created multiple ways in which its books could be meaningfully arranged. No single arrangement, as found in ancient manuscripts and lists of the books, can fully account for the compositional intent of these framers. The task of the compilational critic is to identify these arrangements, classify them, and evaluate the effect of these varying arrangements. This solution has implications both for the production of modern Bibles and for biblical theology. While some interested in compilational criticism argue that modern Bibles should be reorganized to reflect earlier arrangements of the biblical books, this study would suggest that such attempts would be limited in value. For only one of the several attested arrangements could be presented in any printed Bible. As for the idea of attempting to arrange the Bible chronologically, this study argues that to do so would inhibit the reader's understanding of the design of the biblical authors. Since biblical theology bridges the gap between historical-critical and theological studies, internal tensions between historical and theological analyses are often apparent within biblical theology. Compilational criticism helps to relieve these tensions by showing how theology underlies the formation of the Hebrew Bible.
The Great Drama of Jeremiah: A Performance Reading
Published: May 2021
£65.00
In this original work, joining the growing corpus of performance criticism of Hebrew Bible texts, Billingham offers a performance reading of some eleven scenes in the book of Jeremiah, analysing their scripts, actors/speakers, audiences, settings and improvisation of scripts. While kings, priests, prophets and people act in various ways in these performances, Jeremiah himself plays an important role both in reporting their actions and in delivering speeches proclaiming Yhwh's oracles. Earth and members of the Earth community also raise their voices in distress at the absence of the exiled people. The people of the exile themselves can be assumed as the audience if no other is designated in a scene; it will be their role to process the experiences of the drama. Various socio-political and geographical contexts provide safe settings in which they may view the traumatic events that unfold. In a synchronic reading, Billingham argues that Jeremiah improvises several old Israelite traditions, applying them to the new context of exile, challenging the prevailing royal-priestly ideology, and prompting the audience to rethink its beliefs, attitudes and actions.
Among the performances analysed in this book are the divine ultrasound of the pre-natal prophet, Jeremiah's vision of the reversal of creation, the people's search for a single righteous person in Jerusalem, the siege of the city and (horror!) the destruction of the temple. In a ludicrous contest with the idols, the best god wins. And Jeremiah smashes a pot as a sign-act for Judah's destruction. This heuristic reading of Jeremiah invites readers to interact with Jeremiah's messages as dramatic performances that may be brought to life in their own experiences of crisis, challenge and triumph.
The Great Drama of Jeremiah: A Performance Reading
£65.00
In this original work, joining the growing corpus of performance criticism of Hebrew Bible texts, Billingham offers a performance reading of some eleven scenes in the book of Jeremiah, analysing their scripts, actors/speakers, audiences, settings and improvisation of scripts. While kings, priests, prophets and people act in various ways in these performances, Jeremiah himself plays an important role both in reporting their actions and in delivering speeches proclaiming Yhwh's oracles. Earth and members of the Earth community also raise their voices in distress at the absence of the exiled people. The people of the exile themselves can be assumed as the audience if no other is designated in a scene; it will be their role to process the experiences of the drama. Various socio-political and geographical contexts provide safe settings in which they may view the traumatic events that unfold. In a synchronic reading, Billingham argues that Jeremiah improvises several old Israelite traditions, applying them to the new context of exile, challenging the prevailing royal-priestly ideology, and prompting the audience to rethink its beliefs, attitudes and actions.
Among the performances analysed in this book are the divine ultrasound of the pre-natal prophet, Jeremiah's vision of the reversal of creation, the people's search for a single righteous person in Jerusalem, the siege of the city and (horror!) the destruction of the temple. In a ludicrous contest with the idols, the best god wins. And Jeremiah smashes a pot as a sign-act for Judah's destruction. This heuristic reading of Jeremiah invites readers to interact with Jeremiah's messages as dramatic performances that may be brought to life in their own experiences of crisis, challenge and triumph.
Abishag: Administrator of King David’s Household
Published: May 2021
£80.00
Following Daniel Bodi's previous monographs on the three wives of King David —Michal, Bathsheba and Abigail —here is a fourth one on Abishag, the last woman in his life. It has not been recognized before how decisive a role she played as a palace administrator in David's final political crisis, Adonijah's coup d’état , and Solomon's proclamation as king.
Hitherto, Abishag has been given androcentric readings. Her position as administrator has been demoted to that of a mere housekeeper, bedfellow or even hot-water bottle. Some rabbinic authors transformed her into an androgynous being, claiming an intersex person warms better than a young female virgin. In fact, the term for Abishag's office as sōkenet is nothing but the feminine form of sken 'palace steward', a well-known functionary across the Semitic world. Much more than a simple housekeeper, Abishag wields administrative power with a legal role as a witness in Solomon's appointment.
Exploring further the role of women at royal courts, Bodi also offers a comparative analysis of the famous queens who played a role in the royal succession as kings' mothers in Egypt, Mari, Hatti, Ugarit and Assyria. Solomon's appointment as David's successor results from a palace putsch, executed with cunning and craftiness, which are to be understood as archaic forms of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible, classical Greece and the ancient Near East.
The stories of David's wives —and of Abishag —together form a Hebrew document in the style of an Advice to a Prince. An interesting comparison is drawn between David's four wives and the four females Odysseus encounters in Homer's Odyssey: Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa and Penelope. Strikingly, the Hebrew version of the Advice to a Prince and the Homeric Epic were being written at roughly the same time, the end of the eighth century bce.
Abishag: Administrator of King David’s Household
£80.00
Following Daniel Bodi's previous monographs on the three wives of King David —Michal, Bathsheba and Abigail —here is a fourth one on Abishag, the last woman in his life. It has not been recognized before how decisive a role she played as a palace administrator in David's final political crisis, Adonijah's coup d’état , and Solomon's proclamation as king.
Hitherto, Abishag has been given androcentric readings. Her position as administrator has been demoted to that of a mere housekeeper, bedfellow or even hot-water bottle. Some rabbinic authors transformed her into an androgynous being, claiming an intersex person warms better than a young female virgin. In fact, the term for Abishag's office as sōkenet is nothing but the feminine form of sken 'palace steward', a well-known functionary across the Semitic world. Much more than a simple housekeeper, Abishag wields administrative power with a legal role as a witness in Solomon's appointment.
Exploring further the role of women at royal courts, Bodi also offers a comparative analysis of the famous queens who played a role in the royal succession as kings' mothers in Egypt, Mari, Hatti, Ugarit and Assyria. Solomon's appointment as David's successor results from a palace putsch, executed with cunning and craftiness, which are to be understood as archaic forms of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible, classical Greece and the ancient Near East.
The stories of David's wives —and of Abishag —together form a Hebrew document in the style of an Advice to a Prince. An interesting comparison is drawn between David's four wives and the four females Odysseus encounters in Homer's Odyssey: Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa and Penelope. Strikingly, the Hebrew version of the Advice to a Prince and the Homeric Epic were being written at roughly the same time, the end of the eighth century bce.
Job: From Lament to Penitence
Published: Nov 2020
£60.00
Recent form-critical studies from Mark Boda and Rodney Werline among others have brought about an increased interest in the penitential form and a recognition of the form as distinct and derivative from the lament form. This development in scholarship has enabled the present study to develop a new analysis of the penitential form in Job and its interaction with the lament form.
Using the methodological frameworks of form criticism and eco-anthropology —which studies how human identity is formed in relation with the natural world —, Breitkopf argues that the voice of the character Job undergoes a marked shift from lament to penitence as the book proceeds. It corresponds to a shift in the character's worldview, evinced in the book's language about the natural order.
Negative language and imagery about nature is abundant in Job, e.g. when Job in chapter 3 curses existence (especially birth and life) and invokes Leviathan. In so doing, Job discloses his understanding of humanity as dominant over the natural world. But as the book of Job nears its end, the divine speeches, where wild animals and Leviathan are described as thriving and free from human control, subvert Job's negative language.
Fundamentally, Breitkopf argues, Job's language, such as in chapter 3, is challenged by the divine speeches. Job's final words in response, especially in 42.6, expressed in penitential language, signal a reconsideration of his human identity as mere “dust and ash” within the framework of the natural world and represent a striking change from his original outlook.
Job: From Lament to Penitence
£60.00
Recent form-critical studies from Mark Boda and Rodney Werline among others have brought about an increased interest in the penitential form and a recognition of the form as distinct and derivative from the lament form. This development in scholarship has enabled the present study to develop a new analysis of the penitential form in Job and its interaction with the lament form.
Using the methodological frameworks of form criticism and eco-anthropology —which studies how human identity is formed in relation with the natural world —, Breitkopf argues that the voice of the character Job undergoes a marked shift from lament to penitence as the book proceeds. It corresponds to a shift in the character's worldview, evinced in the book's language about the natural order.
Negative language and imagery about nature is abundant in Job, e.g. when Job in chapter 3 curses existence (especially birth and life) and invokes Leviathan. In so doing, Job discloses his understanding of humanity as dominant over the natural world. But as the book of Job nears its end, the divine speeches, where wild animals and Leviathan are described as thriving and free from human control, subvert Job's negative language.
Fundamentally, Breitkopf argues, Job's language, such as in chapter 3, is challenged by the divine speeches. Job's final words in response, especially in 42.6, expressed in penitential language, signal a reconsideration of his human identity as mere “dust and ash” within the framework of the natural world and represent a striking change from his original outlook.
Like the Stars Forever: Narrative and Theology in the Book of Daniel
Published: Oct 2020
£65.00
This anthology of Meadowcroft's essays (all but one previously published) coheres around three claims he makes about the book of Daniel. The first is that Daniel should be understood primarily as a wisdom figure, and that the first chapter of the book of Daniel is programmatic in that regard. The second is that the vision of the one like a son of man represents a theological hinge that guides an understanding of both the tales and the visions as expressions of participation in the divine life on the part of the wise Daniel and his people. The third claim is that the final chapter of Daniel, as the capstone of the wisdom story of Daniel, shows the aim of wise participation in the divine life as an enduring legacy of righteousness in those who encounter this wisdom.
These claims are supported by a close reading of aspects of the narrative art on display in the book of Daniel; an exegetical appreciation of the interpretative impact of understanding the faithful wise as expressive of the hopes placed in the temple by the ancient people; and a theological and contextual reading of the experiences of Daniel and his friends —in the daily routines of life in the Babylonian and Persian courts, and in those strange apocalyptic encounters of the later chapters. From such reading there emerges the paradoxical nature of faith as certain hope and ethical clarity alongside mystery and uncertainty and the call to patient endurance. This delicate dance between certainty and patience, clarity and mystery was a feature of the experience of Daniel and his people in their time of exile, of later readers suffering under the heel of Antiochus Epiphanes, of those resisting the claims to lordship on the part of Rome, and still today of readers of the book of Daniel wherever empire is encountered and resisted.
Like the Stars Forever: Narrative and Theology in the Book of Daniel
£65.00
This anthology of Meadowcroft's essays (all but one previously published) coheres around three claims he makes about the book of Daniel. The first is that Daniel should be understood primarily as a wisdom figure, and that the first chapter of the book of Daniel is programmatic in that regard. The second is that the vision of the one like a son of man represents a theological hinge that guides an understanding of both the tales and the visions as expressions of participation in the divine life on the part of the wise Daniel and his people. The third claim is that the final chapter of Daniel, as the capstone of the wisdom story of Daniel, shows the aim of wise participation in the divine life as an enduring legacy of righteousness in those who encounter this wisdom.
These claims are supported by a close reading of aspects of the narrative art on display in the book of Daniel; an exegetical appreciation of the interpretative impact of understanding the faithful wise as expressive of the hopes placed in the temple by the ancient people; and a theological and contextual reading of the experiences of Daniel and his friends —in the daily routines of life in the Babylonian and Persian courts, and in those strange apocalyptic encounters of the later chapters. From such reading there emerges the paradoxical nature of faith as certain hope and ethical clarity alongside mystery and uncertainty and the call to patient endurance. This delicate dance between certainty and patience, clarity and mystery was a feature of the experience of Daniel and his people in their time of exile, of later readers suffering under the heel of Antiochus Epiphanes, of those resisting the claims to lordship on the part of Rome, and still today of readers of the book of Daniel wherever empire is encountered and resisted.
The Edict of Cyrus and Notions of Restoration in Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles
Published: Oct 2020
£50.00
The Edict of Cyrus, both opening Ezra-Nehemiah (Ezra 1:1-4) and closing Chronicles (2 Chron. 36:22-23), serves a different role in each book. In Ezra —Nehemiah, it is a command resulting in a restoration event that has failed, whereas in Chronicles it is a command anticipating a successful future restoration event. In the context of canon, these different uses of the edict are theologically significant, especially in formulating ideas of hope for the future in Chronicles.
While Chronicles is aware that a historical restoration transpired sometime in the past (1 Chron. 3:19-24; 9:2-44), it shares the sentiment of Ezra —Nehemiah, that the return was something of a failure. Through compositional analysis, Gilhooley argues that the edict closing Chronicles portrays the true, or rather, complete restoration not as a past event to be reflected upon but rather one to be anticipated sometime in the future —at a time when Israel was expected to see the establishment of a new glorified temple, political independence, release from servitude, and the blessings of new creation and of new cultic order.
Reading Chronicles as the last book of the Old Testament in accordance with various Jewish witnesses, we find that the edict is transformed into a programmatic conclusion to the canon. Accordingly, the eschatological return to Zion and reconstruction of the temple appear to be dominating concerns of the canonical editors. These verses that bring to an end both Chronicles and the Old Testament as a whole may also be read in dialogue with canon-conscious structural markers elsewhere and, therefore, could be formative in constructing a canonical theology.
The Edict of Cyrus and Notions of Restoration in Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles
£50.00
The Edict of Cyrus, both opening Ezra-Nehemiah (Ezra 1:1-4) and closing Chronicles (2 Chron. 36:22-23), serves a different role in each book. In Ezra —Nehemiah, it is a command resulting in a restoration event that has failed, whereas in Chronicles it is a command anticipating a successful future restoration event. In the context of canon, these different uses of the edict are theologically significant, especially in formulating ideas of hope for the future in Chronicles.
While Chronicles is aware that a historical restoration transpired sometime in the past (1 Chron. 3:19-24; 9:2-44), it shares the sentiment of Ezra —Nehemiah, that the return was something of a failure. Through compositional analysis, Gilhooley argues that the edict closing Chronicles portrays the true, or rather, complete restoration not as a past event to be reflected upon but rather one to be anticipated sometime in the future —at a time when Israel was expected to see the establishment of a new glorified temple, political independence, release from servitude, and the blessings of new creation and of new cultic order.
Reading Chronicles as the last book of the Old Testament in accordance with various Jewish witnesses, we find that the edict is transformed into a programmatic conclusion to the canon. Accordingly, the eschatological return to Zion and reconstruction of the temple appear to be dominating concerns of the canonical editors. These verses that bring to an end both Chronicles and the Old Testament as a whole may also be read in dialogue with canon-conscious structural markers elsewhere and, therefore, could be formative in constructing a canonical theology.
Performing Masculinity in the Hebrew Bible
Published: Oct 2020
£65.00
In Performing Masculinity, the eminent Bulgarian literary critic Milena Kirova turns her attention to the Hebrew Bible, offering a reworking and condensation of two volumes of essays she published in Bulgarian in 2011 and 2017. Her chapters, each with an attractive and stimulating title, present a distinctive voice in current debates about masculinity in the Hebrew Bible.
Masculinity studies have been developing during the last half a century, but there is still some opposition, not always conscious, to the field. Studies in masculinity in the Bible have an even shorter history and have created as yet little by way of a tradition among biblical scholars: it is a field still under development.
Kirova has researched a rich variety of narrative situations, poetic characteristics, and symbolic functions of biblical men. Her research here is especially focused on the regal roles ascribed to masculinity in the ancient world.
Among the intriguing questions Kirova poses are these: Why should heroes be beautiful? What is the benefit of weeping, and weeping eloquently? Why problematize what is 'natural'? Who is the 'bramble king'? The ten chapters of Performing Masculinity are deliberately interdisciplinary: anthropology, psychoanalysis, literary and gender studies complement biblical criticism. A variety of audiences will find the book a pleasure and an education.
Performing Masculinity in the Hebrew Bible
£65.00
In Performing Masculinity, the eminent Bulgarian literary critic Milena Kirova turns her attention to the Hebrew Bible, offering a reworking and condensation of two volumes of essays she published in Bulgarian in 2011 and 2017. Her chapters, each with an attractive and stimulating title, present a distinctive voice in current debates about masculinity in the Hebrew Bible.
Masculinity studies have been developing during the last half a century, but there is still some opposition, not always conscious, to the field. Studies in masculinity in the Bible have an even shorter history and have created as yet little by way of a tradition among biblical scholars: it is a field still under development.
Kirova has researched a rich variety of narrative situations, poetic characteristics, and symbolic functions of biblical men. Her research here is especially focused on the regal roles ascribed to masculinity in the ancient world.
Among the intriguing questions Kirova poses are these: Why should heroes be beautiful? What is the benefit of weeping, and weeping eloquently? Why problematize what is 'natural'? Who is the 'bramble king'? The ten chapters of Performing Masculinity are deliberately interdisciplinary: anthropology, psychoanalysis, literary and gender studies complement biblical criticism. A variety of audiences will find the book a pleasure and an education.
Samson and Delilah: Selected Essays
Published: July 2020
£75.00
Samson and Delilah. Well-known biblical figures in a tale of deception, betrayal and a haircut. Or is there more to the tale than this?
There is, in fact, a good deal more, as J. Cheryl Exum demonstrates in this wide-ranging collection of her essays. Far from being a simple story, the tale in Judges 13 —16 about Samson and his adventures, culminating in his fatal liaison with Delilah, is a subtle, nuanced and highly complex narrative with an elaborate literary structure, a sophisticated theological programme, and an ambitious and problematic androcentric agenda. It is, moreover, a story that lives on in literature, art, music and even Hollywood films.
The eleven essays brought together in this volume investigate the Samson story from a diversity of critical perspectives and in a variety of its afterlives. Both Samson and Delilah are characters of many facets, as these essays reveal, and Judges 13 —16 emerges from this investigation as a story that encourages and supports rather than resists multiple, often incompatible, modes of reading it.
Samson and Delilah: Selected Essays
£75.00
Samson and Delilah. Well-known biblical figures in a tale of deception, betrayal and a haircut. Or is there more to the tale than this?
There is, in fact, a good deal more, as J. Cheryl Exum demonstrates in this wide-ranging collection of her essays. Far from being a simple story, the tale in Judges 13 —16 about Samson and his adventures, culminating in his fatal liaison with Delilah, is a subtle, nuanced and highly complex narrative with an elaborate literary structure, a sophisticated theological programme, and an ambitious and problematic androcentric agenda. It is, moreover, a story that lives on in literature, art, music and even Hollywood films.
The eleven essays brought together in this volume investigate the Samson story from a diversity of critical perspectives and in a variety of its afterlives. Both Samson and Delilah are characters of many facets, as these essays reveal, and Judges 13 —16 emerges from this investigation as a story that encourages and supports rather than resists multiple, often incompatible, modes of reading it.
The Bible on Violence: A Thick Description.
Published: July 2020
£70.00
In June 2019 the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence (CSBV) held its inaugural academic conference, and we are delighted to present this collection of papers drawn from those presented at the event. The centre is a postgraduate research and study centre dedicated to working in the area of the interpretation of biblical texts of violence. This wide-ranging collection reflects the centre's core values of generous collaboration, irenic listening, and multidisciplinary scholarship.
Biblical violence presents a complex challenge to the biblical interpreter, the cultural commentator and to belief communities. In the pluriformity of interpretative approaches, the violent texts of the Bible have been taken up in ways that sometimes advance and sometimes challenge violence. Thus, biblical violence cannot be 'solved' by the application of a single hermeneutical lens: this is a multidisciplinary and intercommunal problem requiring a range of approaches.
With contributions from both emerging and established academics, and scholars from several different belief traditions, and none, this volume both offers and models a 'thick description' of biblical violence. Two papers, including our keynote address from James Crossley, critically consider the use of biblical texts for the promotion of violence. A cluster of papers offer novel interpretive approaches to a wide range of texts of biblical violence, from both testaments and a range of genres. A further section brings the Bible into conversation with diverse elements of modern violence, from Grenfell Tower to suicide bombing. In the final part, the focus is on sexual violence, including a critical discourse analysis of divorce sermons and an exploration of the value to modern abuse survivors of naming Jesus as the victim of sexual abuse.
The Bible on Violence: A Thick Description.
£70.00
In June 2019 the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence (CSBV) held its inaugural academic conference, and we are delighted to present this collection of papers drawn from those presented at the event. The centre is a postgraduate research and study centre dedicated to working in the area of the interpretation of biblical texts of violence. This wide-ranging collection reflects the centre's core values of generous collaboration, irenic listening, and multidisciplinary scholarship.
Biblical violence presents a complex challenge to the biblical interpreter, the cultural commentator and to belief communities. In the pluriformity of interpretative approaches, the violent texts of the Bible have been taken up in ways that sometimes advance and sometimes challenge violence. Thus, biblical violence cannot be 'solved' by the application of a single hermeneutical lens: this is a multidisciplinary and intercommunal problem requiring a range of approaches.
With contributions from both emerging and established academics, and scholars from several different belief traditions, and none, this volume both offers and models a 'thick description' of biblical violence. Two papers, including our keynote address from James Crossley, critically consider the use of biblical texts for the promotion of violence. A cluster of papers offer novel interpretive approaches to a wide range of texts of biblical violence, from both testaments and a range of genres. A further section brings the Bible into conversation with diverse elements of modern violence, from Grenfell Tower to suicide bombing. In the final part, the focus is on sexual violence, including a critical discourse analysis of divorce sermons and an exploration of the value to modern abuse survivors of naming Jesus as the victim of sexual abuse.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised. II. Beth-Waw
Published: Nov 2019
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) is a complete revision (2018–2028) in nine volumes, with over 100,000 improvements, of the original DCH, i.e. Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993–2016). This second Volume contains some 2,071 words (lemmas), of which 838 are 'new words' (i.e. not in the standard lexicon of BDB); DCHR II thus adds c. 60% to the number of words for Beth —Waw that are to be found in other Hebrew dictionaries. This revised volume is 40% longer than DCH II (1995), which it replaces. The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised , when completed, will contain more than 6,420 Hebrew words not in BDB, and will refer to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions. New features in DCHR include: a notation of 4,285 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) identified for the first time; 717 verbal nouns (nouns derived from a verb) with their own articles (not previously shown in Hebrew lexica), 345 denominative verbs (verbs derived from a noun), and the semantic field to which every word belongs (a totally new feature for Hebrew dictionaries). Data on synonyms have been greatly expanded, and loanwords from other languages included. Articles on personal names show (for the first time) all short forms, long forms, and alternative forms of each name, the Bibliography has been updated and expanded, and 35,000 emendations of biblical texts noted. Every occurrence of each word in Classical Hebrew is noted. All the subjects and objects of verbs are listed, and the verbs used with each noun, as well as all nouns used in a construct (genitive) relation with another noun. As with DCH , every Hebrew word in the Dictionary (except for the variant forms of a word, the byforms and the sections on synonyms) is followed immediately by an English translation, so that the Dictionary can be easily understood by a person with little or no Hebrew. When completed, DCHR will be 5 million words in length (equivalent to 50 standard-size books), 25% longer than DCH , and 4 times the length of BDB and HALOT . The nine volumes of DCHR are expected to be published at intervals of approximately one year after the first volume in August 2018. There is a special discount price for customers subscribing to the DCHR set, and an easy payment plan (details from phoenix.bibs@sheffield.ac.uk).
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised. II. Beth-Waw
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR) is a complete revision (2018–2028) in nine volumes, with over 100,000 improvements, of the original DCH, i.e. Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993–2016). This second Volume contains some 2,071 words (lemmas), of which 838 are 'new words' (i.e. not in the standard lexicon of BDB); DCHR II thus adds c. 60% to the number of words for Beth —Waw that are to be found in other Hebrew dictionaries. This revised volume is 40% longer than DCH II (1995), which it replaces. The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised , when completed, will contain more than 6,420 Hebrew words not in BDB, and will refer to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions. New features in DCHR include: a notation of 4,285 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) identified for the first time; 717 verbal nouns (nouns derived from a verb) with their own articles (not previously shown in Hebrew lexica), 345 denominative verbs (verbs derived from a noun), and the semantic field to which every word belongs (a totally new feature for Hebrew dictionaries). Data on synonyms have been greatly expanded, and loanwords from other languages included. Articles on personal names show (for the first time) all short forms, long forms, and alternative forms of each name, the Bibliography has been updated and expanded, and 35,000 emendations of biblical texts noted. Every occurrence of each word in Classical Hebrew is noted. All the subjects and objects of verbs are listed, and the verbs used with each noun, as well as all nouns used in a construct (genitive) relation with another noun. As with DCH , every Hebrew word in the Dictionary (except for the variant forms of a word, the byforms and the sections on synonyms) is followed immediately by an English translation, so that the Dictionary can be easily understood by a person with little or no Hebrew. When completed, DCHR will be 5 million words in length (equivalent to 50 standard-size books), 25% longer than DCH , and 4 times the length of BDB and HALOT . The nine volumes of DCHR are expected to be published at intervals of approximately one year after the first volume in August 2018. There is a special discount price for customers subscribing to the DCHR set, and an easy payment plan (details from phoenix.bibs@sheffield.ac.uk).
Divine Election in the Hebrew Bible
Published: Nov 2019
£60.00
To citizens of the modern world the idea that someone or something might be especially elected by God seems problematic. If someone is elected, someone else is not elected. Does the God of all people have preferences? The idea that one particular nation should be elected by God is particularly difficult to accept.
Nevertheless, as this study intends to show, divine election is a central theme in the Hebrew Bible, and present in all its main parts. There are central acts of elections and less central acts of election. Abraham is elected as the founder of the people of Israel. Moses is elected as the ancestor of the religious and political people of Israel. David is elected as first of the Davidic kings. The election of these persons represents something more important than the persons themselves.
There are also other significant acts of election in the Hebrew Bible, especially the election of the land of Israel and of the city of Jerusalem. As well, there is the election of individuals such as the prophets. And even the Assyrians, the Babylonians and King Cyrus of Persia are presented as elected by God for special tasks.
A new full-length study of the important concept of divine election in the Hebrew Bible is long overdue, and Hagelia's readable and balanced monograph can be expected to bring the topic back into contemporary conversation.
Divine Election in the Hebrew Bible
£60.00
To citizens of the modern world the idea that someone or something might be especially elected by God seems problematic. If someone is elected, someone else is not elected. Does the God of all people have preferences? The idea that one particular nation should be elected by God is particularly difficult to accept.
Nevertheless, as this study intends to show, divine election is a central theme in the Hebrew Bible, and present in all its main parts. There are central acts of elections and less central acts of election. Abraham is elected as the founder of the people of Israel. Moses is elected as the ancestor of the religious and political people of Israel. David is elected as first of the Davidic kings. The election of these persons represents something more important than the persons themselves.
There are also other significant acts of election in the Hebrew Bible, especially the election of the land of Israel and of the city of Jerusalem. As well, there is the election of individuals such as the prophets. And even the Assyrians, the Babylonians and King Cyrus of Persia are presented as elected by God for special tasks.
A new full-length study of the important concept of divine election in the Hebrew Bible is long overdue, and Hagelia's readable and balanced monograph can be expected to bring the topic back into contemporary conversation.
The Subversive Chronicler: Narrative Film Theory and Canon Criticism Refocus his Intention
Published: Nov 2019
£55.00
In 1 and 2 Chronicles, commentators have long noted a pattern of retributive justice whereby kings who comply with Yahweh's will are rewarded with long life and honourable burial, whereas those who do not are disgraced. However, another pattern significantly emerges from a group of kings whose careers display an unexpected reversal. No convincing consensus has yet emerged to explain this reversal pattern.
By exploring and adopting the insights of narrative film theory, particularly of cognitive film semiotics, into the effects of macro-repetition, Son uncovers the implications of these unexpected reversals. As the reversal pattern is interwoven with the retributive pattern, the narrative emerges as a falsifying narration, provoking a deep scepticism about the conventional view of retribution theology.
Deleuzian film theory offers a crucial insight into how this falsifying narration works. The reversal pattern has a destabilizing effect, which suggests that the Chronicler's theological outlook is more nuanced than that of Samuel —Kings, or perhaps even frankly subversive of it. From a canonical perspective, furthermore, the presence of the Chronicler's work in the Ketuvim points to its potential function as a subtle theological readjustment in the postexilic Jewish community.
The Subversive Chronicler is then a challenge to the Chronicler's theology as it is commonly understood and also as a refocusing of its difference from the historiography of Samuel —Kings.
The Subversive Chronicler: Narrative Film Theory and Canon Criticism Refocus his Intention
£55.00
In 1 and 2 Chronicles, commentators have long noted a pattern of retributive justice whereby kings who comply with Yahweh's will are rewarded with long life and honourable burial, whereas those who do not are disgraced. However, another pattern significantly emerges from a group of kings whose careers display an unexpected reversal. No convincing consensus has yet emerged to explain this reversal pattern.
By exploring and adopting the insights of narrative film theory, particularly of cognitive film semiotics, into the effects of macro-repetition, Son uncovers the implications of these unexpected reversals. As the reversal pattern is interwoven with the retributive pattern, the narrative emerges as a falsifying narration, provoking a deep scepticism about the conventional view of retribution theology.
Deleuzian film theory offers a crucial insight into how this falsifying narration works. The reversal pattern has a destabilizing effect, which suggests that the Chronicler's theological outlook is more nuanced than that of Samuel —Kings, or perhaps even frankly subversive of it. From a canonical perspective, furthermore, the presence of the Chronicler's work in the Ketuvim points to its potential function as a subtle theological readjustment in the postexilic Jewish community.
The Subversive Chronicler is then a challenge to the Chronicler's theology as it is commonly understood and also as a refocusing of its difference from the historiography of Samuel —Kings.
The Song of Songs Afresh: Perspectives on a Biblical Love Poem
Published: Oct 2019
£60.00
This volume is one of the fruits of a six-year series of international conferences on the Song of Songs. The 13 diverse articles here being presented in four categories.
1. Classical exegetical studies. What does the blackness of the woman signify? Ausloos sees a tension between an exegetically appropriate and a politically correct interpretation, Biernot an example of Jewish discourse on blackness and whiteness ranging from antiquity to modern times. The function of the so-called dream in the Song is examined in the context of dreams in the ancient Near East with their two kinds of wake-up expressions (Fernandes). Fischer sees the daughters of Jerusalem as a means of identification for the reader and as placeholders for the young women of society. Next are intertextual readings of the Shulammite with a South African poem (Lombaard) and of the Song's vision of love with mythological traces in the Hebrew Bible (Mathys).
2. Post-modern exegetical studies. Included is a dialogue on horses in love and war (Landy and Metzler), a psychoanalytical reading on the theme of death (van der Zwan), and a blend of Ricoeur and cognitive metaphor theory that profiles the man in the Song (Verde).
3. Jewish studies. Baraniak studies the targumic exegesis, and DamohorskÌÁ the Song in Passover Piyyutim.
4. Hermeneutics. Responsible exegesis of the Song is Oosthuizen's theme, and Scheffler's is varieties of allegorizing.
The Song of Songs Afresh: Perspectives on a Biblical Love Poem
£60.00
This volume is one of the fruits of a six-year series of international conferences on the Song of Songs. The 13 diverse articles here being presented in four categories.
1. Classical exegetical studies. What does the blackness of the woman signify? Ausloos sees a tension between an exegetically appropriate and a politically correct interpretation, Biernot an example of Jewish discourse on blackness and whiteness ranging from antiquity to modern times. The function of the so-called dream in the Song is examined in the context of dreams in the ancient Near East with their two kinds of wake-up expressions (Fernandes). Fischer sees the daughters of Jerusalem as a means of identification for the reader and as placeholders for the young women of society. Next are intertextual readings of the Shulammite with a South African poem (Lombaard) and of the Song's vision of love with mythological traces in the Hebrew Bible (Mathys).
2. Post-modern exegetical studies. Included is a dialogue on horses in love and war (Landy and Metzler), a psychoanalytical reading on the theme of death (van der Zwan), and a blend of Ricoeur and cognitive metaphor theory that profiles the man in the Song (Verde).
3. Jewish studies. Baraniak studies the targumic exegesis, and DamohorskÌÁ the Song in Passover Piyyutim.
4. Hermeneutics. Responsible exegesis of the Song is Oosthuizen's theme, and Scheffler's is varieties of allegorizing.
The Reality of Religious Violence: From Biblical to Modern Times
Published: Sep 2019
£75.00
Violence and religion have been interacting from the beginning of recorded history according to The Reality of Religious Violence: From Biblical to Modern Times. This book addresses two major questions: 1. Does religious violence exist? 2. If so, how is it different from other types of violence?
The first question is a reaction to a whole stream of scholarship led by William T. Cavanaugh, author of The Myth of Religious Violence (2009), which denies that religious violence is a specific category of violence over against many other types of violence that we can name. The second question is whether 'religious violence' is a useful category at all.
This book argues that religious violence is not only a useful category, but also a necessary one if we are to understand our history and seek solutions. It is true, nevertheless, that wars and other types of violence can be caused by problems that have nothing to do with religion.
What is central to this book is the ethical quality of religious violence. Non-religious violence arises from causes one can detect (e.g. oil, water, money). Religious violence does not have any detectable cause, since there is no supernatural force or being that we can identify as the cause. That is what makes religious violence more tragic. Detailed examples are drawn from the Hebrew Bible, Christian texts, and Muslim texts.
The Reality of Religious Violence: From Biblical to Modern Times
£75.00
Violence and religion have been interacting from the beginning of recorded history according to The Reality of Religious Violence: From Biblical to Modern Times. This book addresses two major questions: 1. Does religious violence exist? 2. If so, how is it different from other types of violence?
The first question is a reaction to a whole stream of scholarship led by William T. Cavanaugh, author of The Myth of Religious Violence (2009), which denies that religious violence is a specific category of violence over against many other types of violence that we can name. The second question is whether 'religious violence' is a useful category at all.
This book argues that religious violence is not only a useful category, but also a necessary one if we are to understand our history and seek solutions. It is true, nevertheless, that wars and other types of violence can be caused by problems that have nothing to do with religion.
What is central to this book is the ethical quality of religious violence. Non-religious violence arises from causes one can detect (e.g. oil, water, money). Religious violence does not have any detectable cause, since there is no supernatural force or being that we can identify as the cause. That is what makes religious violence more tragic. Detailed examples are drawn from the Hebrew Bible, Christian texts, and Muslim texts.
God and Humans in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond: A Festschrift for Lennart Boström on his 67th Birthday
Published: Sep 2019
£70.00
In 1990, in his important study The God of the Sages: The Portrayal of God in the Book of Proverbs, Lennart Boström tackled the issue of how the sages viewed their God and God's relationship with the world. In honour of Boström, and in line with that study, this Festschrift takes up this issue anew. A number of international specialists, including James Crenshaw, Göran Eidevall, Mark A. Throntveit, and Antti Laato, discuss various aspects of how God and humans are portrayed in the Bible.
The first section of the book focuses on notions of God. There is a fresh look at monolatry in the Hebrew Bible, and at God's faithfulness in Paul's soteriology. The second section deals with humans, featuring, for example, two articles on Psalm 8.5, one with a focus on the Hebrew Bible, and the other reading the psalm through the eyes of women in Myanmar. There is also an article on angst in wisdom literature.
The third section brings God and humans into dialogue, looking at how various interpretations of suffering in the psalms shape the view of the divine —human relationship, or how God and humans relate to each other in books like Jonah and Ruth. The fourth and last section of the book focuses on God and God's people, where new proposals are presented on the roles played by Zion and by the ten commandments.
This volume presents stimulating and up-to-date engagements with its theme, an excellent resource for scholars of both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.
God and Humans in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond: A Festschrift for Lennart Boström on his 67th Birthday
£70.00
In 1990, in his important study The God of the Sages: The Portrayal of God in the Book of Proverbs, Lennart Boström tackled the issue of how the sages viewed their God and God's relationship with the world. In honour of Boström, and in line with that study, this Festschrift takes up this issue anew. A number of international specialists, including James Crenshaw, Göran Eidevall, Mark A. Throntveit, and Antti Laato, discuss various aspects of how God and humans are portrayed in the Bible.
The first section of the book focuses on notions of God. There is a fresh look at monolatry in the Hebrew Bible, and at God's faithfulness in Paul's soteriology. The second section deals with humans, featuring, for example, two articles on Psalm 8.5, one with a focus on the Hebrew Bible, and the other reading the psalm through the eyes of women in Myanmar. There is also an article on angst in wisdom literature.
The third section brings God and humans into dialogue, looking at how various interpretations of suffering in the psalms shape the view of the divine —human relationship, or how God and humans relate to each other in books like Jonah and Ruth. The fourth and last section of the book focuses on God and God's people, where new proposals are presented on the roles played by Zion and by the ten commandments.
This volume presents stimulating and up-to-date engagements with its theme, an excellent resource for scholars of both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.
Hebrew Masculinities Anew
Published: Jun 2019
£65.00
The study of biblical masculinities is now a clearly recognizable discipline in critical biblical gender studies. This book, the third in a series of SPP volumes that include Men and Masculinity in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond (ed. Ovidiu Creangă, 2010) and Biblical Masculinities Foregrounded (ed. Ovidiu Creangă and Peter-Ben Smit, 2014), takes stock of recent methodological and thematic developments, while introducing fresh new questions, expanding traditional approaches, and adding new texts to the corpus of masculinities in the Hebrew Bible.
The volume's introduction (Ovidiu Creangă) celebrates the rich palette of approaches and disciplinary intersections that now characterize the study of Hebrew Bible masculinities, while calling attention to understudied topics. The next thirteen chapters dig deep into the methodological building-blocks underpinning biblical masculinity (Stephen Wilson); the theoretically essential distinction between queer and non-queer masculinities (Gil Rosenberg); the often-neglected yet essential representation of God's masculinity (David J.A. Clines); the competing masculinities of God, Pharaoh, and Moses in historical and lesbian perspective (Caralie Focht and Richard Purcell); Queen Jezebel's performance of masculinity (Hilary Lipka); Priestly and Deuteronomic fantasies of male perfection (Sandra Jacobs); the problem-ridden masculinity of Moses (Amy Kalmanofsky); the rhetoric of 'queen-making' in the prophetic literature (Susan E. Haddox); Jonah's homosocial masculinity (Rhiannon Graybill); the scribal masculinity of Daniel (Brian C. DiPalma); the ephemeral masculinity of mortal men (Milena Kirova); the masculine agencies in the Song of Songs (Martti Nissinen); and the intertwining of money and masculinity in the Book of Proverbs (Kelly Murphy). In the final chapter, Stuart Macwilliam reflects on methodological opportunities, thematic expansions, and a future direction for biblical masculinities.
Hebrew Masculinities Anew
£65.00
The study of biblical masculinities is now a clearly recognizable discipline in critical biblical gender studies. This book, the third in a series of SPP volumes that include Men and Masculinity in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond (ed. Ovidiu Creangă, 2010) and Biblical Masculinities Foregrounded (ed. Ovidiu Creangă and Peter-Ben Smit, 2014), takes stock of recent methodological and thematic developments, while introducing fresh new questions, expanding traditional approaches, and adding new texts to the corpus of masculinities in the Hebrew Bible.
The volume's introduction (Ovidiu Creangă) celebrates the rich palette of approaches and disciplinary intersections that now characterize the study of Hebrew Bible masculinities, while calling attention to understudied topics. The next thirteen chapters dig deep into the methodological building-blocks underpinning biblical masculinity (Stephen Wilson); the theoretically essential distinction between queer and non-queer masculinities (Gil Rosenberg); the often-neglected yet essential representation of God's masculinity (David J.A. Clines); the competing masculinities of God, Pharaoh, and Moses in historical and lesbian perspective (Caralie Focht and Richard Purcell); Queen Jezebel's performance of masculinity (Hilary Lipka); Priestly and Deuteronomic fantasies of male perfection (Sandra Jacobs); the problem-ridden masculinity of Moses (Amy Kalmanofsky); the rhetoric of 'queen-making' in the prophetic literature (Susan E. Haddox); Jonah's homosocial masculinity (Rhiannon Graybill); the scribal masculinity of Daniel (Brian C. DiPalma); the ephemeral masculinity of mortal men (Milena Kirova); the masculine agencies in the Song of Songs (Martti Nissinen); and the intertwining of money and masculinity in the Book of Proverbs (Kelly Murphy). In the final chapter, Stuart Macwilliam reflects on methodological opportunities, thematic expansions, and a future direction for biblical masculinities.
Ancestral Queerness: The Normal and the Deviant in the Abraham and Sarah Narratives
Published: May 2019
£50.00
What would it look like to be queer in the time of Abraham and Sarah? What is normative and what is deviant in their stories? What does this have to do with queer lives today?
In Ancestral Queerness, Gil Rosenberg uses a careful comparative method to develop a cross-cultural queer category ('Queer'). He applies this category to Abraham and Sarah and argues that, Abraham and Sarah may usefully be regarded as 'Queer'.
Rosenberg's comparisons draw on a variety of contemporary queer stories, scholarship, and theories. These include a lesbian mother trying to support her partner and newborn daughter, Australian polyamorous families, Lee Edelman's figure of the Child, and gay men building families through surrogacy.
These comparisons lead Rosenberg to surprising new interpretations of several key passages in Genesis 11 —21. For example, he argues that Abraham wants to hide his marriage to Sarah because their relationship is a queer one, and that Sarah may not actually be wanting a biological child. Rosenberg also highlights the combination of normative and deviant elements in Abraham's strategies for obtaining an heir, and the role of ethnic and class difference in Abraham's and Sarah's efforts to become more normative.
Bold in its conclusions but careful and precise in its method, Ancestral Queerness breaks new ground by developing a queer theory applicable to diverse cultures, revealing the bias in previous scholarship on Abraham and Sarah, and opening up new paths of interpretation in their narratives.
Ancestral Queerness: The Normal and the Deviant in the Abraham and Sarah Narratives
£50.00
What would it look like to be queer in the time of Abraham and Sarah? What is normative and what is deviant in their stories? What does this have to do with queer lives today?
In Ancestral Queerness, Gil Rosenberg uses a careful comparative method to develop a cross-cultural queer category ('Queer'). He applies this category to Abraham and Sarah and argues that, Abraham and Sarah may usefully be regarded as 'Queer'.
Rosenberg's comparisons draw on a variety of contemporary queer stories, scholarship, and theories. These include a lesbian mother trying to support her partner and newborn daughter, Australian polyamorous families, Lee Edelman's figure of the Child, and gay men building families through surrogacy.
These comparisons lead Rosenberg to surprising new interpretations of several key passages in Genesis 11 —21. For example, he argues that Abraham wants to hide his marriage to Sarah because their relationship is a queer one, and that Sarah may not actually be wanting a biological child. Rosenberg also highlights the combination of normative and deviant elements in Abraham's strategies for obtaining an heir, and the role of ethnic and class difference in Abraham's and Sarah's efforts to become more normative.
Bold in its conclusions but careful and precise in its method, Ancestral Queerness breaks new ground by developing a queer theory applicable to diverse cultures, revealing the bias in previous scholarship on Abraham and Sarah, and opening up new paths of interpretation in their narratives.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew. I. Aleph. Revised Edition
Published: July 2018
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR ) is a complete revision, with over 100,000 improvements, of the original Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993 —2016).
It contains 6,300 Hebrew words not in the standard lexicon of BDB, and refers to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions. New features include: a notation of 3,700 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) identified for the first time; 700 verbal nouns (nouns derived from a verb) with their own articles (not previously shown in Hebrew lexica), 330 denominative verbs (verbs derived from a noun), and the semantic field to which every word belongs (a totally new feature for Hebrew dictionaries).
Data on synonyms have been greatly expanded, and loanwords from other languages included. Articles on personal names show (for the first time) all short forms, long forms, and alternative forms of the name, bibliographies have been updated and expanded, and 35,000 emendations of biblical texts noted. Every occurrence of each word in Classical Hebrew is noted.
All the subjects and objects of verbs are listed, and the verbs used with each noun, as well as all nouns used in a construct (genitive) relation with another noun. As with DCH, every Hebrew word in the Dictionary (except for the sections on synonyms) is followed immediately by an English translation, so that the Dictionary can be easily understood by a person with little or no Hebrew. When completed, DCHR will be 5 million words in length (equivalent to 50 standard-size books), 25% longer than DCH, and 4 times the length of BDB and HALOT.
There is a special discount price for customers subscribing to the DCHR set, and an easy payment plan (details from phoenix.bibs@sheffield.ac.uk).
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew. I. Aleph. Revised Edition
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Revised (DCHR ) is a complete revision, with over 100,000 improvements, of the original Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993 —2016).
It contains 6,300 Hebrew words not in the standard lexicon of BDB, and refers to many newly published texts, including 540 Dead Sea Scrolls and 4,000 ancient Hebrew inscriptions. New features include: a notation of 3,700 byforms (words with the same meaning and similar form) identified for the first time; 700 verbal nouns (nouns derived from a verb) with their own articles (not previously shown in Hebrew lexica), 330 denominative verbs (verbs derived from a noun), and the semantic field to which every word belongs (a totally new feature for Hebrew dictionaries).
Data on synonyms have been greatly expanded, and loanwords from other languages included. Articles on personal names show (for the first time) all short forms, long forms, and alternative forms of the name, bibliographies have been updated and expanded, and 35,000 emendations of biblical texts noted. Every occurrence of each word in Classical Hebrew is noted.
All the subjects and objects of verbs are listed, and the verbs used with each noun, as well as all nouns used in a construct (genitive) relation with another noun. As with DCH, every Hebrew word in the Dictionary (except for the sections on synonyms) is followed immediately by an English translation, so that the Dictionary can be easily understood by a person with little or no Hebrew. When completed, DCHR will be 5 million words in length (equivalent to 50 standard-size books), 25% longer than DCH, and 4 times the length of BDB and HALOT.
There is a special discount price for customers subscribing to the DCHR set, and an easy payment plan (details from phoenix.bibs@sheffield.ac.uk).
Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect: II. Social Locations
Published: Nov 2017
£25.00 – £60.00
This is the second of a set of three volumes reviewing the progress of feminist Hebrew Bible scholarship over the last 40 years. In it, fourteen essayists focus on the feminist work from various geographical areas and different hermeneutical locations.
Each essay explores the range and depth of feminist exegesis, presents substantial yet easily digestible trends, preferences and perspectives in feminist scholarship, and demonstrates that feminist biblical approaches are not monolithic but diverse in feminist conviction, hermeneutics and method.
The result of this collaborative task is a comprehensive though selective survey, which includes suggestions for future feminist engagement. What feminist biblical scholarship has accomplished during the past forty years is no small feat. But it becomes clear from this volume that much remains to be done in the pursuit of dismantling structures of gender domination in Hebrew Bible exegesis and beyond.
Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect: II. Social Locations
£25.00 – £60.00
This is the second of a set of three volumes reviewing the progress of feminist Hebrew Bible scholarship over the last 40 years. In it, fourteen essayists focus on the feminist work from various geographical areas and different hermeneutical locations.
Each essay explores the range and depth of feminist exegesis, presents substantial yet easily digestible trends, preferences and perspectives in feminist scholarship, and demonstrates that feminist biblical approaches are not monolithic but diverse in feminist conviction, hermeneutics and method.
The result of this collaborative task is a comprehensive though selective survey, which includes suggestions for future feminist engagement. What feminist biblical scholarship has accomplished during the past forty years is no small feat. But it becomes clear from this volume that much remains to be done in the pursuit of dismantling structures of gender domination in Hebrew Bible exegesis and beyond.
Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect: I. Biblical Books
Published: Oct 2017
£25.00 – £60.00
This is the first of a set of three volumes reviewing the progress of feminist Hebrew Bible scholarship over the last 40 years. In it, fourteen essayists focus on the feminist work on each of the biblical books.
Each essay explores the range and depth of feminist exegesis, presents substantial yet easily digestible trends, preferences and perspectives in feminist scholarship, and demonstrates that feminist biblical approaches are not monolithic but diverse in feminist conviction, hermeneutics and method.
The result of this collaborative task is a comprehensive though selective survey, which includes suggestions for future feminist engagement. What feminist biblical scholarship has accomplished during the past forty years is no small feat. But it becomes clear from this volume that much remains to be done in the pursuit of dismantling structures of gender domination in Hebrew Bible exegesis and beyond.
Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect: I. Biblical Books
£25.00 – £60.00
This is the first of a set of three volumes reviewing the progress of feminist Hebrew Bible scholarship over the last 40 years. In it, fourteen essayists focus on the feminist work on each of the biblical books.
Each essay explores the range and depth of feminist exegesis, presents substantial yet easily digestible trends, preferences and perspectives in feminist scholarship, and demonstrates that feminist biblical approaches are not monolithic but diverse in feminist conviction, hermeneutics and method.
The result of this collaborative task is a comprehensive though selective survey, which includes suggestions for future feminist engagement. What feminist biblical scholarship has accomplished during the past forty years is no small feat. But it becomes clear from this volume that much remains to be done in the pursuit of dismantling structures of gender domination in Hebrew Bible exegesis and beyond.
The Decalogue and its Cultural Influence
Published: Oct 2017
£33.00 – £70.00
Reception history is one of the most inviting, yet also one of the most difficult, fields in the study of the Bible today. It is difficult because it involves so many layers of expertise. The reception-historian does not only need a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the biblical text itself, but also familiarity with the cultures and intellectual background of the many diverse ages in which it has been read and appropriated; and in addition needs to be versed in media other than writing, including the visual and performing arts.
But it is inviting because it carries its practitioners so far beyond the confines of ordinary textual study, with its concern for language and text, and out into an ocean of interdisciplinary engagement with writings that have, after all, stimulated the imaginations as well as the intellects of generations of religious (and non-religious) readers. The Decalogue is an obvious candidate for a reception-historical treatment. It has acquired over the centuries an enormous weight of commentary, and has been assimilated into the most varied cultures. Though a text, it has often also been an icon, appearing on walls in churches and now even in American courthouses. The subject was ripe for study, and the conference at which the papers in this book were delivered marked a significant milestone in biblical reception history' (from John Barton's Preface to the volume).
The 21 papers in this volume offer the richest and most wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection of studies on the reception of the Decalogue in culture, and will prove to be a fundamental resource for students of the biblical text and of the reception of the Bible in general.
The Decalogue and its Cultural Influence
£33.00 – £70.00
Reception history is one of the most inviting, yet also one of the most difficult, fields in the study of the Bible today. It is difficult because it involves so many layers of expertise. The reception-historian does not only need a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the biblical text itself, but also familiarity with the cultures and intellectual background of the many diverse ages in which it has been read and appropriated; and in addition needs to be versed in media other than writing, including the visual and performing arts.
But it is inviting because it carries its practitioners so far beyond the confines of ordinary textual study, with its concern for language and text, and out into an ocean of interdisciplinary engagement with writings that have, after all, stimulated the imaginations as well as the intellects of generations of religious (and non-religious) readers. The Decalogue is an obvious candidate for a reception-historical treatment. It has acquired over the centuries an enormous weight of commentary, and has been assimilated into the most varied cultures. Though a text, it has often also been an icon, appearing on walls in churches and now even in American courthouses. The subject was ripe for study, and the conference at which the papers in this book were delivered marked a significant milestone in biblical reception history' (from John Barton's Preface to the volume).
The 21 papers in this volume offer the richest and most wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection of studies on the reception of the Decalogue in culture, and will prove to be a fundamental resource for students of the biblical text and of the reception of the Bible in general.
Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect. III: Methods
Published: Oct 2017
£25.00 – £60.00
This is the third of a set of three volumes reviewing the progress of feminist Hebrew Bible scholarship over the last forty years. In this third volume, eighteen contributors focus on the wide range of exegetical methods as they have been productively employed in feminist biblical interpretations.
More specifically, each essay investigates how feminist Hebrew Bible exegetes have worked with exegetical methods. Each essay surveys the method under consideration as it has emerged in academic discourse generally and in biblical studies in particular. Each essay also explains how feminist uses of the various exegetical methods have been deeply embedded within the theological, cultural, and even political expectations and assumptions of readers of the Bible.
This volume asks readers to come to terms with the following question: What are the best methods for feminist exegesis in the light of past and present socio-political, theological, or hermeneutical developments in reading the Bible? After all, feminist theorists have come to recognize that methods are always already situated within powerful epistemological and methodological structures that have their roots in vast arrays of historical, political, economic, social, and religious factors. This volume encourages feminist debate on these complex issues that stand at the heart of biblical exegesis.
Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect. III: Methods
£25.00 – £60.00
This is the third of a set of three volumes reviewing the progress of feminist Hebrew Bible scholarship over the last forty years. In this third volume, eighteen contributors focus on the wide range of exegetical methods as they have been productively employed in feminist biblical interpretations.
More specifically, each essay investigates how feminist Hebrew Bible exegetes have worked with exegetical methods. Each essay surveys the method under consideration as it has emerged in academic discourse generally and in biblical studies in particular. Each essay also explains how feminist uses of the various exegetical methods have been deeply embedded within the theological, cultural, and even political expectations and assumptions of readers of the Bible.
This volume asks readers to come to terms with the following question: What are the best methods for feminist exegesis in the light of past and present socio-political, theological, or hermeneutical developments in reading the Bible? After all, feminist theorists have come to recognize that methods are always already situated within powerful epistemological and methodological structures that have their roots in vast arrays of historical, political, economic, social, and religious factors. This volume encourages feminist debate on these complex issues that stand at the heart of biblical exegesis.
Biblical Masculinities Foregrounded
Published: Oct 2017
£25.00 – £65.00
Biblical Masculinities Foregrounded brings together ten innovative studies on varieties of masculinity evidenced in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and other early Christian writings. A sequel to the 2010 collection, Men and Masculinity in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond, this new volume raises important questions about why the study of biblical masculinities matters, what it contributes to our knowledge of the ancient writers' world as well as to our contemporary world, and which methods adequately attend to that study. The volume is designed as a resource for scholars of both Testaments working from a variety of biblical traditions and ideological perspectives on masculinity.
The following studies are offered as companions in the conversation: Yahweh's masculinity in appearances in glory in Exodus and Ezekiel (Alan Hooker); Proverbs' (de)construction of masculinity (Hilary Lipka); Saul's troubled masculinity in 1 —2 Samuel (Marcel M€Äcelaru); weeping men in the Torah and the Deuteronomistic history (Milena Kirova); Athaliah's manly rule (Stuart Macwilliam); Joseph of Nazareth as an everyday man (Justin Glessner); being a male disciple in Matthew's 'antitheses' (Hans-Ulrich Weidemann); eunuch masculinity in Matthew's Gospel (Susanna Asikainen); masculinity and circumcision in the first century (Karin Neutel and Matthew Anderson); and Thecla's masculinity in the Acts of Thecla (Peter-Ben Smit). Ovidiu Creangă opens the volume with a critical appraisal of the current state of play in the field, while Martti Nissinen and Bjorn Krondorfer offer closing critical reflections that situate the book's topics within broader debates regarding masculinities in religious studies.
Biblical Masculinities Foregrounded
£25.00 – £65.00
Biblical Masculinities Foregrounded brings together ten innovative studies on varieties of masculinity evidenced in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and other early Christian writings. A sequel to the 2010 collection, Men and Masculinity in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond, this new volume raises important questions about why the study of biblical masculinities matters, what it contributes to our knowledge of the ancient writers' world as well as to our contemporary world, and which methods adequately attend to that study. The volume is designed as a resource for scholars of both Testaments working from a variety of biblical traditions and ideological perspectives on masculinity.
The following studies are offered as companions in the conversation: Yahweh's masculinity in appearances in glory in Exodus and Ezekiel (Alan Hooker); Proverbs' (de)construction of masculinity (Hilary Lipka); Saul's troubled masculinity in 1 —2 Samuel (Marcel M€Äcelaru); weeping men in the Torah and the Deuteronomistic history (Milena Kirova); Athaliah's manly rule (Stuart Macwilliam); Joseph of Nazareth as an everyday man (Justin Glessner); being a male disciple in Matthew's 'antitheses' (Hans-Ulrich Weidemann); eunuch masculinity in Matthew's Gospel (Susanna Asikainen); masculinity and circumcision in the first century (Karin Neutel and Matthew Anderson); and Thecla's masculinity in the Acts of Thecla (Peter-Ben Smit). Ovidiu Creangă opens the volume with a critical appraisal of the current state of play in the field, while Martti Nissinen and Bjorn Krondorfer offer closing critical reflections that situate the book's topics within broader debates regarding masculinities in religious studies.
Ezra: A Commentary
Published: Sep 2017
£29.50 – £60.00
Lisbeth Fried's commentary on Ezra is the first instalment of a projected two-volume commentary on Ezra —Nehemiah. It is the first full-length scholarly commentary on Ezra —Nehemiah to be written since 1988 and takes advantage of recent results in archaeology, of recent historical studies on the Persian Empire, and of recent studies of the influence of Hellenistic textual and legal traditions on Judean thought. It also draws extensively on the author's own research into the mechanisms by which the Persian Empire dominated and controlled its subject populations. The present volume includes a new translation of the Book of Ezra, plus annotations on each verse that compare and contrast the Greek, Latin and Syriac variations, including the text of Greek Esdras A. It also provides an extensive Introduction and chapter commentaries that discuss larger historical and literary issues. Fried concludes that Ezra —Nehemiah was written as one book at the beginning of the Hellenistic period. Although written then, it was formed from earlier texts: an Ezra memoir, a letter to Ezra from Artaxerxes II, and a Nehemiah memoir. All of these have been heavily edited, however. Fried concludes that both Ezra and Nehemiah were Persian officials, Ezra a Persian episkopos , and Nehemiah a Persian governor, and that both acted with the goals of their Persian overlords in mind, not the goals of the subject Judean population. The Judean author, writing under Hellenic domination, transformed these men into Judean heroes in order to promote the novel idea of a long tradition of foreign imperial support for local institutions —cultic, legal and physical. Fried's commentary promises to revolutionize how one reads the book of Ezra. This is the first volume in a new series of substantial works, Critical Commentaries.
Ezra: A Commentary
£29.50 – £60.00
Lisbeth Fried's commentary on Ezra is the first instalment of a projected two-volume commentary on Ezra —Nehemiah. It is the first full-length scholarly commentary on Ezra —Nehemiah to be written since 1988 and takes advantage of recent results in archaeology, of recent historical studies on the Persian Empire, and of recent studies of the influence of Hellenistic textual and legal traditions on Judean thought. It also draws extensively on the author's own research into the mechanisms by which the Persian Empire dominated and controlled its subject populations. The present volume includes a new translation of the Book of Ezra, plus annotations on each verse that compare and contrast the Greek, Latin and Syriac variations, including the text of Greek Esdras A. It also provides an extensive Introduction and chapter commentaries that discuss larger historical and literary issues. Fried concludes that Ezra —Nehemiah was written as one book at the beginning of the Hellenistic period. Although written then, it was formed from earlier texts: an Ezra memoir, a letter to Ezra from Artaxerxes II, and a Nehemiah memoir. All of these have been heavily edited, however. Fried concludes that both Ezra and Nehemiah were Persian officials, Ezra a Persian episkopos , and Nehemiah a Persian governor, and that both acted with the goals of their Persian overlords in mind, not the goals of the subject Judean population. The Judean author, writing under Hellenic domination, transformed these men into Judean heroes in order to promote the novel idea of a long tradition of foreign imperial support for local institutions —cultic, legal and physical. Fried's commentary promises to revolutionize how one reads the book of Ezra. This is the first volume in a new series of substantial works, Critical Commentaries.
The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible
Published: Sep 2017
£25.00 – £60.00
From Eve to Esther, the Hebrew Bible is replete with gendered tales of trickery. A lie is uttered, a mask donned, a seduction staged, while redemption is propelled forward, guided by the divine hand. From the first 'female ruse' — Eve presenting the fruit of the tree of knowledge to Adam — humanity becomes embodied, engaged in history, moving from the Garden to exile, from wandering to homeland and redemption (and back again). Consider Rebekah dressing her beloved son in goatskins to steal the blessing from his blind father; Lot's daughters lying with their drunken father, and then conceiving the founding fathers of Ammon and Moab; Leah and Rachel, the mothers of the twelve tribes of Israel, duping Jacob on their wedding night; Tamar's seduction of Judah, her father-in-law, who then bears the progenitor of the Davidic line; Naomi sending Ruth to the threshing floor to seduce Boaz by night; Bathsheba invoking an oath that King David had supposedly made in order to forward Solomon, her son, as successor to the monarchy; and Queen Esther concealing her Jewish identity in the Persian imperial court. Over the course of nine chapters, the author traces these narratives of deception; in each case, God is in cahoots with these feminine agents in advancing the providential plan. A tension holds between the 'best laid plans' of men and the divine will as forwarded by women. Drawing on classic rabbinic sources and modern literary exegesis, the author exposes the conflict between the simple progression of genealogies and the process of selection through alliances of family and kin. Women are at the crux of that conflict, seemingly compelled to choose the indirect route while the deity appears to endorse their lie.
The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible
£25.00 – £60.00
From Eve to Esther, the Hebrew Bible is replete with gendered tales of trickery. A lie is uttered, a mask donned, a seduction staged, while redemption is propelled forward, guided by the divine hand. From the first 'female ruse' — Eve presenting the fruit of the tree of knowledge to Adam — humanity becomes embodied, engaged in history, moving from the Garden to exile, from wandering to homeland and redemption (and back again). Consider Rebekah dressing her beloved son in goatskins to steal the blessing from his blind father; Lot's daughters lying with their drunken father, and then conceiving the founding fathers of Ammon and Moab; Leah and Rachel, the mothers of the twelve tribes of Israel, duping Jacob on their wedding night; Tamar's seduction of Judah, her father-in-law, who then bears the progenitor of the Davidic line; Naomi sending Ruth to the threshing floor to seduce Boaz by night; Bathsheba invoking an oath that King David had supposedly made in order to forward Solomon, her son, as successor to the monarchy; and Queen Esther concealing her Jewish identity in the Persian imperial court. Over the course of nine chapters, the author traces these narratives of deception; in each case, God is in cahoots with these feminine agents in advancing the providential plan. A tension holds between the 'best laid plans' of men and the divine will as forwarded by women. Drawing on classic rabbinic sources and modern literary exegesis, the author exposes the conflict between the simple progression of genealogies and the process of selection through alliances of family and kin. Women are at the crux of that conflict, seemingly compelled to choose the indirect route while the deity appears to endorse their lie.
Journeys in the Songscape: Space and the Song of Songs
Published: Sep 2017
£20.00 – £60.00
The poetic world of the Song of Songs is a famously heady and distortive landscape, filled with bright sunlit rills, nocturnal cityscapes, and fecund bodies laid out like kingdoms. But what does the Song's use and abuse of spatial relationships tell us about its subject matter, and what do its strange panoramas tell us about literary space more broadly? Directly challenging recent methodological trends in biblical spatial studies, Journeys in the Songscape uses a range of innovative critical tools to explore, map and critique poetic space in the Song of Songs.
Taking the reader on a series of journeys across the Song's gendered, rural, urban and bodily spaces, Meredith argues that the worlds that spring up between the Song's lovers are all subtle reimaginings of the space between the biblical page and its own readers, and that at the heart of the Song is a (con)fusion of the dynamics of loving with the experience of reading. Love is at work in the Song, says Meredith, but it is not its subject so much as a sign under which collusions of power, textuality, space and subjectivity labour. The Song's world speaks not only to sexual relationships, then, but to the structure of language itself; textual spaces do not organize textual meaning but rather image its fundamental instability.
Journeys in the Songscape is a bold new literary treatment of the Song of Songs, but it is also a rethinking of what we mean by the term 'literary space', and represents a playful incitement to reconsider how critical tools are put to use in apprehending space as a literary construct.
Journeys in the Songscape: Space and the Song of Songs
£20.00 – £60.00
The poetic world of the Song of Songs is a famously heady and distortive landscape, filled with bright sunlit rills, nocturnal cityscapes, and fecund bodies laid out like kingdoms. But what does the Song's use and abuse of spatial relationships tell us about its subject matter, and what do its strange panoramas tell us about literary space more broadly? Directly challenging recent methodological trends in biblical spatial studies, Journeys in the Songscape uses a range of innovative critical tools to explore, map and critique poetic space in the Song of Songs.
Taking the reader on a series of journeys across the Song's gendered, rural, urban and bodily spaces, Meredith argues that the worlds that spring up between the Song's lovers are all subtle reimaginings of the space between the biblical page and its own readers, and that at the heart of the Song is a (con)fusion of the dynamics of loving with the experience of reading. Love is at work in the Song, says Meredith, but it is not its subject so much as a sign under which collusions of power, textuality, space and subjectivity labour. The Song's world speaks not only to sexual relationships, then, but to the structure of language itself; textual spaces do not organize textual meaning but rather image its fundamental instability.
Journeys in the Songscape is a bold new literary treatment of the Song of Songs, but it is also a rethinking of what we mean by the term 'literary space', and represents a playful incitement to reconsider how critical tools are put to use in apprehending space as a literary construct.
Persuading God: Rhetorical Studies of First-Person Psalms
Published: Sep 2017
£19.00 – £45.00
Written by a scholar of rhetoric, Persuading God demonstrates that the first-person psalms that make up over a third of the Book of Psalms were designed not simply to express the feelings of individual Israelites but to persuade God to act.
The book casts a new light on the roles of all the players in the situations in which the psalms were composed and performed: the person represented by the speaker on whose particular troubles the psalm is based, the spectators and opponents who are sometimes addressed directly by the speaker, the poet-musicians who craft the speaker's case and occasionally undermine it, and most of all, God as the direct addressee whose presumed openness to persuasion and willingness to intervene underlie the entire event.
The readings provide new explanations for many long-standing puzzles: how to deal with the long string of imprecations in Psalm 109, whether Psalm 4 is best read as protesting a false accusation or as countering apostasy, why so many verses in Psalm 62 begin with the exclamation ach , and, more generally, why so many first-person psalms seem to swing abruptly between despair and praise.
The book demonstrates the relevance of contemporary rhetorical theory to Hebrew Bible studies, including the work of ChaÌøm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Kenneth Burke, and Mikhail Bakhtin. It also illuminates the state of rhetorical practice in the ancient Near East at the same time that rhetorical theories were first being codified and taught in archaic and classical Athens.
Persuading God: Rhetorical Studies of First-Person Psalms
£19.00 – £45.00
Written by a scholar of rhetoric, Persuading God demonstrates that the first-person psalms that make up over a third of the Book of Psalms were designed not simply to express the feelings of individual Israelites but to persuade God to act.
The book casts a new light on the roles of all the players in the situations in which the psalms were composed and performed: the person represented by the speaker on whose particular troubles the psalm is based, the spectators and opponents who are sometimes addressed directly by the speaker, the poet-musicians who craft the speaker's case and occasionally undermine it, and most of all, God as the direct addressee whose presumed openness to persuasion and willingness to intervene underlie the entire event.
The readings provide new explanations for many long-standing puzzles: how to deal with the long string of imprecations in Psalm 109, whether Psalm 4 is best read as protesting a false accusation or as countering apostasy, why so many verses in Psalm 62 begin with the exclamation ach , and, more generally, why so many first-person psalms seem to swing abruptly between despair and praise.
The book demonstrates the relevance of contemporary rhetorical theory to Hebrew Bible studies, including the work of ChaÌøm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Kenneth Burke, and Mikhail Bakhtin. It also illuminates the state of rhetorical practice in the ancient Near East at the same time that rhetorical theories were first being codified and taught in archaic and classical Athens.
Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 11 (2015)
Published: Aug 2016
£80.00
This is the eleventh volume of the hard-copy edition of a journal that has been published online (www.jgrchj.net) since 2000. Volume 1 was for 2000, Volume 2 was for 2001 —2005, Volume 3 was for 2006, Volume 4 was for 2007, Volume 5 was for 2008, Volume 6 was for 2009, Volume 7 was for 2010, Volume 8 was for 2011 —2012, Volume 9 was for 2013, Volume 10 was for 2014 and Volume 11 is for 2015. As they appear, the hard-copy editions will replace the online materials.
The scope of JGRChJ is the texts, language and cultures of the Greco-Roman world of early Christianity and Judaism. The papers published in JGRChJ are designed to pay special attention to the 'larger picture' of politics, culture, religion and language, engaging as well with modern theoretical approaches.
Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 11 (2015)
£80.00
This is the eleventh volume of the hard-copy edition of a journal that has been published online (www.jgrchj.net) since 2000. Volume 1 was for 2000, Volume 2 was for 2001 —2005, Volume 3 was for 2006, Volume 4 was for 2007, Volume 5 was for 2008, Volume 6 was for 2009, Volume 7 was for 2010, Volume 8 was for 2011 —2012, Volume 9 was for 2013, Volume 10 was for 2014 and Volume 11 is for 2015. As they appear, the hard-copy editions will replace the online materials.
The scope of JGRChJ is the texts, language and cultures of the Greco-Roman world of early Christianity and Judaism. The papers published in JGRChJ are designed to pay special attention to the 'larger picture' of politics, culture, religion and language, engaging as well with modern theoretical approaches.
Obadiah
Published: July 2016
£15.00 – £35.00
Although Obadiah is the smallest book in the Hebrew Bible, its readers are confronted with a variety of challenges —linguistic, historical and hermeneutical. In the present volume the Book of Obadiah is approached from a variety of angles and reading strategies. These approaches sometimes concur, but often contradict one another.
Bob Becking discusses various grammatical and linguistic problems of the Hebrew text in translating the book for a post-secular audience. Historical questions are the province of Nadav Na'aman. What were the 'events' with which the text seems to cope? Literary-historical issues concern Marvin Sweeney, who sees the book as the end-result of a complex redaction history in which the text was read in connection with and confrontation to the other Minor Prophets.
Reading from particular positions is the theme of Gerrie Snyman, approaching the book in a South-African context, and asking, Who is vulnerable and who is not? Julia O'Brien takes a gender-specific approach asking, What does it mean that Edom is a brother who breaks the family code? Eric Ottenheijm traces the ways in which the Rabbis understood Obadiah.
With insights from newly developing fields, Nicholas Werse discusses the violent character of judgment in the book in the light of semiotics, and Bradford Anderson brings to the fore the spatial rhetoric in the book.
The authors of this volume offer their readings of the text in a non-exclusive way. No one claims to have found the one and only way to appreciate the message of the prophetic book. It is up to the readers of this volume —and of the Book of Obadiah —to decide how they will read the book in the changing circumstances of life.
Obadiah
£15.00 – £35.00
Although Obadiah is the smallest book in the Hebrew Bible, its readers are confronted with a variety of challenges —linguistic, historical and hermeneutical. In the present volume the Book of Obadiah is approached from a variety of angles and reading strategies. These approaches sometimes concur, but often contradict one another.
Bob Becking discusses various grammatical and linguistic problems of the Hebrew text in translating the book for a post-secular audience. Historical questions are the province of Nadav Na'aman. What were the 'events' with which the text seems to cope? Literary-historical issues concern Marvin Sweeney, who sees the book as the end-result of a complex redaction history in which the text was read in connection with and confrontation to the other Minor Prophets.
Reading from particular positions is the theme of Gerrie Snyman, approaching the book in a South-African context, and asking, Who is vulnerable and who is not? Julia O'Brien takes a gender-specific approach asking, What does it mean that Edom is a brother who breaks the family code? Eric Ottenheijm traces the ways in which the Rabbis understood Obadiah.
With insights from newly developing fields, Nicholas Werse discusses the violent character of judgment in the book in the light of semiotics, and Bradford Anderson brings to the fore the spatial rhetoric in the book.
The authors of this volume offer their readings of the text in a non-exclusive way. No one claims to have found the one and only way to appreciate the message of the prophetic book. It is up to the readers of this volume —and of the Book of Obadiah —to decide how they will read the book in the changing circumstances of life.
Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively, I (Student Edition, Revised)
Published: July 2016
£26.00 – £40.00
The fruit of several years' research and development, field-tested by teachers without experience of conversation in Hebrew as a spoken language, Paul Overland's new Hebrew textbook is startlingly original and immediately accessible and attractive. Its foundation is the theory and practice of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), which orients grammar so as to empower the student's capacity for reading, hearing and expressing in Biblical Hebrew.
Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively offers a set of activities structured on a serialized narrative inspired by the book of Jonah. Working through it, the student acquires facility in communicating in Hebrew by expressing opinions, accomplishing tasks, or asking others to do something. It is a hands-on, interactive learning experience, hugely various, enhanced by its 230 illustrations and photos, and numerous inserts headed 'Did you know that...?' featuring interesting aspects of Hebrew culture.
There are two volumes, which can be bought separately, and a version of the student edition that is designed for the instructor, with hints on how to use the textbook in a class setting.
Each lesson in the textbook is enhanced by digital resources, freely downloadable from LearningBiblicalHebrewInteractively.com.
Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively, I (Student Edition, Revised)
£26.00 – £40.00
The fruit of several years' research and development, field-tested by teachers without experience of conversation in Hebrew as a spoken language, Paul Overland's new Hebrew textbook is startlingly original and immediately accessible and attractive. Its foundation is the theory and practice of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), which orients grammar so as to empower the student's capacity for reading, hearing and expressing in Biblical Hebrew.
Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively offers a set of activities structured on a serialized narrative inspired by the book of Jonah. Working through it, the student acquires facility in communicating in Hebrew by expressing opinions, accomplishing tasks, or asking others to do something. It is a hands-on, interactive learning experience, hugely various, enhanced by its 230 illustrations and photos, and numerous inserts headed 'Did you know that...?' featuring interesting aspects of Hebrew culture.
There are two volumes, which can be bought separately, and a version of the student edition that is designed for the instructor, with hints on how to use the textbook in a class setting.
Each lesson in the textbook is enhanced by digital resources, freely downloadable from LearningBiblicalHebrewInteractively.com.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volumes 1-9 Hardback
Published: Jun 2016
£50.00 – £150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English-Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volumes 1-9 Hardback
£50.00 – £150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English-Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume 9: Index
Published: May 2016
£50.00 – £150.00
Volume IX offers a valuable enhancement of the 8-volume Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993 —2011). In DCH I —VIII, each volume had its own English —Hebrew Index, but this volume presents a much improved gathering together of all those indexes. The Index here contains every word used as a translation (gloss) in the Dictionary, that is, all the words printed in bold. In addition —a feature not seen before in Hebrew dictionaries —beneath each listed word are noted all the Hebrew words it translates, together with the volume and page reference of the relevant article.
The Index thus shows at a glance all the Hebrew words that are translated with the same English word, e.g. Arrogance 10 Hebrew words, Arrow 7, Assembly 10, Band 9, Basket 9, Bend 10, Branch 23, Break 21. So it becomes an index of synonyms, hard to parallel elsewhere in the scholarly literature.
Indexes have not been a common feature of twentieth-century Hebrew dictionaries, though they were quite frequent in older lexica, and it is time they were restored as a customary element in a lexicon. Browsing the Index will prove not only interesting but also useful.
The second element in this volume is the Word Frequency Table. This is a combination of the Word Frequency Tables in the various volumes of DCH . There, the lists of word frequencies were arranged under each letter of the alphabet. In the present publication, all the words in the Dictionary are combined in a single list arranged in order of frequency of occurrence.
Unlike all previous lists of occurrences of Hebrew words, the present list includes the occurrences not only in the Hebrew Bible but also in the whole scope of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, which is to say, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Inscriptions as well as the Hebrew Bible itself. For each word there is listed the number of occurrences in each of those four corpora, and the ranking position of a given word is determined by the total number of occurrences in all the classical Hebrew texts combined. For some sample pages of this Volume, click The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, IX . See also The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, a one-volume version of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume 9: Index
£50.00 – £150.00
Volume IX offers a valuable enhancement of the 8-volume Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (1993 —2011). In DCH I —VIII, each volume had its own English —Hebrew Index, but this volume presents a much improved gathering together of all those indexes. The Index here contains every word used as a translation (gloss) in the Dictionary, that is, all the words printed in bold. In addition —a feature not seen before in Hebrew dictionaries —beneath each listed word are noted all the Hebrew words it translates, together with the volume and page reference of the relevant article.
The Index thus shows at a glance all the Hebrew words that are translated with the same English word, e.g. Arrogance 10 Hebrew words, Arrow 7, Assembly 10, Band 9, Basket 9, Bend 10, Branch 23, Break 21. So it becomes an index of synonyms, hard to parallel elsewhere in the scholarly literature.
Indexes have not been a common feature of twentieth-century Hebrew dictionaries, though they were quite frequent in older lexica, and it is time they were restored as a customary element in a lexicon. Browsing the Index will prove not only interesting but also useful.
The second element in this volume is the Word Frequency Table. This is a combination of the Word Frequency Tables in the various volumes of DCH . There, the lists of word frequencies were arranged under each letter of the alphabet. In the present publication, all the words in the Dictionary are combined in a single list arranged in order of frequency of occurrence.
Unlike all previous lists of occurrences of Hebrew words, the present list includes the occurrences not only in the Hebrew Bible but also in the whole scope of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, which is to say, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Inscriptions as well as the Hebrew Bible itself. For each word there is listed the number of occurrences in each of those four corpora, and the ranking position of a given word is determined by the total number of occurrences in all the classical Hebrew texts combined. For some sample pages of this Volume, click The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, IX . See also The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, a one-volume version of The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew.
Megilloth Studies: The Shape of Contemporary Scholarship
Published: Feb 2016
£60.00
This volume brings together two years of papers read to the Megilloth Consultation Group at the Annual Meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature; it represents some of the most recent work being done by a group of international scholars on the collection of Hebrew Bible books known as the Megilloth.
Although the individual books of the Megilloth have received ample academic attention in contemporary scholarship, relatively little has been done to situate them under this broader rubric. To this end, the present volume addresses a range of issues associated with studying the five scrolls, such as the internal relationship between the books themselves, intertextual connections between the five scrolls and other portions of the Hebrew Bible, gender and ethnic concerns in the five scrolls, and the theological commitments and contours of the collection. Several of the papers and the volume itself also intentionally wrestle with the viability of the category 'Megilloth' as a meaningful term in academic studies of these writings.
In addition to papers on the Megilloth in general (Galvin, Stone, Fullerton Strollo), there are studies on Esther (Davis, Greenspoon, Avnery, Peters, three of them in relation to Ruth), Lamentations (Gruber and Yona, Flanders) and Qoheleth (Weeks).
Megilloth Studies: The Shape of Contemporary Scholarship
£60.00
This volume brings together two years of papers read to the Megilloth Consultation Group at the Annual Meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature; it represents some of the most recent work being done by a group of international scholars on the collection of Hebrew Bible books known as the Megilloth.
Although the individual books of the Megilloth have received ample academic attention in contemporary scholarship, relatively little has been done to situate them under this broader rubric. To this end, the present volume addresses a range of issues associated with studying the five scrolls, such as the internal relationship between the books themselves, intertextual connections between the five scrolls and other portions of the Hebrew Bible, gender and ethnic concerns in the five scrolls, and the theological commitments and contours of the collection. Several of the papers and the volume itself also intentionally wrestle with the viability of the category 'Megilloth' as a meaningful term in academic studies of these writings.
In addition to papers on the Megilloth in general (Galvin, Stone, Fullerton Strollo), there are studies on Esther (Davis, Greenspoon, Avnery, Peters, three of them in relation to Ruth), Lamentations (Gruber and Yona, Flanders) and Qoheleth (Weeks).
Teaching the Bible in the Liberal Arts Classroom, Volume 2
Published: Oct 2015
£22.50 – £50.00
Eugene V. Gallagher, Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies at Connecticut College, writes: 'In a context where the general value of the Humanities has increasingly come under question by those who see a college education as necessarily being directly tied to the first job that students will have after they graduate, an ability to make a vigorous case about the contribution of studying the Bible to any college student's education is crucial for any teacher'.
This second collection of essays edited by Jane Webster and Glenn Holland seeks not only to promote the role of biblical studies in an undergraduate liberal arts education, but also to suggest strategies and approaches for teaching the Bible in a range of academic situations. Combining the theoretical and the practical, this volume will be another useful source of guidance and support for teachers of biblical studies at any point in their professional careers.
Teaching the Bible in the Liberal Arts Classroom, Volume 2
£22.50 – £50.00
Eugene V. Gallagher, Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies at Connecticut College, writes: 'In a context where the general value of the Humanities has increasingly come under question by those who see a college education as necessarily being directly tied to the first job that students will have after they graduate, an ability to make a vigorous case about the contribution of studying the Bible to any college student's education is crucial for any teacher'.
This second collection of essays edited by Jane Webster and Glenn Holland seeks not only to promote the role of biblical studies in an undergraduate liberal arts education, but also to suggest strategies and approaches for teaching the Bible in a range of academic situations. Combining the theoretical and the practical, this volume will be another useful source of guidance and support for teachers of biblical studies at any point in their professional careers.
Simulating Aichele: Essays in Bible, Film, Culture and Theory
Published: Oct 2015
£55.00
Simulating Aichele pays tribute to the title of George Aichele's 2011 book, Simulating Jesus. In contemporary biblical scholarship, Aichele is a notable leader whose writings explore the problems of meaning and referentiality in the Bible and in biblical texts found in non-biblical contexts. His close readings of canonical texts alongside 'the fantastic' in film, television and literature reveal the relationships between texts and intertexts. Such juxtapositions expose gaps and liberate strange voices in the Bible and break the stranglehold of canonical ideologies. Aichele shows how the afterlives of biblical texts simultaneously produce present and past realities by simulating both. These afterlives not only pull ancient texts into the present but in the process also change the precursor text(s).
This Festschrift presents some of the afterlives of Aichele's research in Bible, film, culture and theory. Exercises in intertextuality and textual liberation include Yvonne Sherwood's reading of Jacob and Esau alongside a Sierra Leone twin story 'Kanu and the Book'; Richard Walsh's pairing of Jesus' final lament in Mark with Kafka's 'In the Penal Colony'; Tina Pippin's exploration of the afterlives of Jesus' baptism in Mark; Gary A. Phillips's ethical imagining of Martha as the Levinasian Other; and Scott S. Elliott's interpretation of 1 Corinthians 9 in light of Roland Barthes' 'Neutral'. Other contributors explore Bible and film. Robert Paul Seesengood and Jennifer L. Koosed review recent apocalyptic films; Fred W. Burnett analyses the greatest contemporary slacker, the Dude, from The Big Lebowski; and Erin Runions compares the panoptic desire for complete knowledge found in 1 Corinthians and A Scanner Darkly. Finally, Roland Boer looks at the unexpected afterlives of Hebrew and Christian scriptures in Lenin's speeches, and Stephen D. Moore offers a retrospective essay on postmodernism and biblical studies.
Simulating Aichele: Essays in Bible, Film, Culture and Theory
£55.00
Simulating Aichele pays tribute to the title of George Aichele's 2011 book, Simulating Jesus. In contemporary biblical scholarship, Aichele is a notable leader whose writings explore the problems of meaning and referentiality in the Bible and in biblical texts found in non-biblical contexts. His close readings of canonical texts alongside 'the fantastic' in film, television and literature reveal the relationships between texts and intertexts. Such juxtapositions expose gaps and liberate strange voices in the Bible and break the stranglehold of canonical ideologies. Aichele shows how the afterlives of biblical texts simultaneously produce present and past realities by simulating both. These afterlives not only pull ancient texts into the present but in the process also change the precursor text(s).
This Festschrift presents some of the afterlives of Aichele's research in Bible, film, culture and theory. Exercises in intertextuality and textual liberation include Yvonne Sherwood's reading of Jacob and Esau alongside a Sierra Leone twin story 'Kanu and the Book'; Richard Walsh's pairing of Jesus' final lament in Mark with Kafka's 'In the Penal Colony'; Tina Pippin's exploration of the afterlives of Jesus' baptism in Mark; Gary A. Phillips's ethical imagining of Martha as the Levinasian Other; and Scott S. Elliott's interpretation of 1 Corinthians 9 in light of Roland Barthes' 'Neutral'. Other contributors explore Bible and film. Robert Paul Seesengood and Jennifer L. Koosed review recent apocalyptic films; Fred W. Burnett analyses the greatest contemporary slacker, the Dude, from The Big Lebowski; and Erin Runions compares the panoptic desire for complete knowledge found in 1 Corinthians and A Scanner Darkly. Finally, Roland Boer looks at the unexpected afterlives of Hebrew and Christian scriptures in Lenin's speeches, and Stephen D. Moore offers a retrospective essay on postmodernism and biblical studies.
The Bible Retold by Jewish Artists, Writers, Composers and Filmmakers
Published: Oct 2015
£60.00
Helen Leneman and Barry Dov Walfish, both specialists in biblical reception history, have compiled an unusually rich collection of new essays by experts in their fields. This book is a pioneering attempt to portray and analyse the visions of twentieth- and twenty-first century Jewish artists working in different media —visual art, literature (novels, poetry and short stories), music (opera, oratorio and song), and film —who have retold biblical narratives through their art. Reading these essays together will bring a new appreciation and understanding of what makes the perspective of these visual artists, writers, composers and filmmakers on the Hebrew Bible uniquely Jewish.
All of these Jewish visions can be considered a form of modern midrash, as the artists imaginatively fill in gaps in the biblical narrative, bringing a modern sensibility to the meanings of the stories.
Under the heading 'Biblical Women', the stories of the matriarchs, Hagar, and other biblical women are re-imagined in the visual arts, poetry and music. Several further chapters focus on the story of the Aqedah (Binding of Isaac), as represented in the visual arts, literature and music. Other retellings of biblical narratives through short stories are then examined, while yet other chapters explore the books of Esther and Psalms as envisioned and retold in the visual arts, opera, literature and film.
These retellings, analysed and discussed by the authors of this ground-breaking volume, will stimulate the reader to view the texts in new ways or to confront their challenge to personal or traditional interpretations of those texts.
The Bible Retold by Jewish Artists, Writers, Composers and Filmmakers
£60.00
Helen Leneman and Barry Dov Walfish, both specialists in biblical reception history, have compiled an unusually rich collection of new essays by experts in their fields. This book is a pioneering attempt to portray and analyse the visions of twentieth- and twenty-first century Jewish artists working in different media —visual art, literature (novels, poetry and short stories), music (opera, oratorio and song), and film —who have retold biblical narratives through their art. Reading these essays together will bring a new appreciation and understanding of what makes the perspective of these visual artists, writers, composers and filmmakers on the Hebrew Bible uniquely Jewish.
All of these Jewish visions can be considered a form of modern midrash, as the artists imaginatively fill in gaps in the biblical narrative, bringing a modern sensibility to the meanings of the stories.
Under the heading 'Biblical Women', the stories of the matriarchs, Hagar, and other biblical women are re-imagined in the visual arts, poetry and music. Several further chapters focus on the story of the Aqedah (Binding of Isaac), as represented in the visual arts, literature and music. Other retellings of biblical narratives through short stories are then examined, while yet other chapters explore the books of Esther and Psalms as envisioned and retold in the visual arts, opera, literature and film.
These retellings, analysed and discussed by the authors of this ground-breaking volume, will stimulate the reader to view the texts in new ways or to confront their challenge to personal or traditional interpretations of those texts.
Biblical Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism
Published: Oct 2015
£20.00 – £80.00
This volume will prove a classic textbook on rhetorical criticism in the Bible, especially the Hebrew Bible. Following the lead of the famous Presidential Address to the Society of Biblical Literature in 1968 by James Muilenburg, 'Form Criticism and Beyond', Jack Lundbom has for over 40 years been developing and shaping the field with a stream of papers. 26 of them (three not previously published) are gathered into this volume.
Hebrew rhetoric has a long history, reaching back even into the early Israelite period. Recognition of rhetorical elements in the Bible can be seen in Hillel, Augustine, ibn Ezra, and Calvin, as well as among certain biblical scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries. But the revival of rhetoric and the modern method of rhetorical criticism is more recent, having begun in America among classical scholars in the early 1900s, and having been widely adopted by biblical scholars in the last third of the twentieth century. Biblical scholars today invariably have rhetorical criticism in their exegetical toolbox, but the field lacks such a comprehensive corpus of studies as the present volume supplies.
Reading the Bible with an eye to the rhetorical nature of its discourse —not just the style, but its structures and modes of argumentation —gives one a sharpened view of biblical figures, their legacy, and much else in the biblical text. One also gets new insight into the audiences for whom biblical messages were originally intended. Rhetorical criticism offers a ready yield for all those seeking a closer understanding of the biblical texts.
Biblical Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism
£20.00 – £80.00
This volume will prove a classic textbook on rhetorical criticism in the Bible, especially the Hebrew Bible. Following the lead of the famous Presidential Address to the Society of Biblical Literature in 1968 by James Muilenburg, 'Form Criticism and Beyond', Jack Lundbom has for over 40 years been developing and shaping the field with a stream of papers. 26 of them (three not previously published) are gathered into this volume.
Hebrew rhetoric has a long history, reaching back even into the early Israelite period. Recognition of rhetorical elements in the Bible can be seen in Hillel, Augustine, ibn Ezra, and Calvin, as well as among certain biblical scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries. But the revival of rhetoric and the modern method of rhetorical criticism is more recent, having begun in America among classical scholars in the early 1900s, and having been widely adopted by biblical scholars in the last third of the twentieth century. Biblical scholars today invariably have rhetorical criticism in their exegetical toolbox, but the field lacks such a comprehensive corpus of studies as the present volume supplies.
Reading the Bible with an eye to the rhetorical nature of its discourse —not just the style, but its structures and modes of argumentation —gives one a sharpened view of biblical figures, their legacy, and much else in the biblical text. One also gets new insight into the audiences for whom biblical messages were originally intended. Rhetorical criticism offers a ready yield for all those seeking a closer understanding of the biblical texts.
The World of the Child in the Hebrew Bible
Published: Oct 2015
£18.50 – £50.00
The question 'What is a child?' is not easily answered. To make us aware of the multiple factors that contribute to the social construction of childhood in the Hebrew Bible, Naomi Steinberg draws on ethno-historical evidence and incorporates the insights of contemporary social studies of childhood. Through close readings of Genesis 21, 1 Samuel 1 and Exodus 21.22-25, she argues that chronological age and biological immaturity do not determine the boundaries of childhood in biblical Israel.
The social constructions of childhood in the Hebrew Bible were based on what the child could do for the parent, not vice versa. Children were their parents' property and were used to fulfil their parents' desires and needs. Not all children had the same experiences of childhood, of course. For example, whether a child was born into a monogamous or polygamous family shaped the course of its future. Other relevant factors in the construction of the multiplicities of childhoods included gender, birth order, and the socio-political historical contexts of ancient Israel. Steinberg convincingly corrects the notion that childhood is a static category in the human life cycle, showing that meanings of childhood are not generic and cannot be carried over from one society to another.
This fascinating study, in which the author draws fruitfully on her personal cross-cultural experience of children's lives in Guatemala, exposes the reality that childhood in the Hebrew Bible was radically different from present-day childhood.
The World of the Child in the Hebrew Bible
£18.50 – £50.00
The question 'What is a child?' is not easily answered. To make us aware of the multiple factors that contribute to the social construction of childhood in the Hebrew Bible, Naomi Steinberg draws on ethno-historical evidence and incorporates the insights of contemporary social studies of childhood. Through close readings of Genesis 21, 1 Samuel 1 and Exodus 21.22-25, she argues that chronological age and biological immaturity do not determine the boundaries of childhood in biblical Israel.
The social constructions of childhood in the Hebrew Bible were based on what the child could do for the parent, not vice versa. Children were their parents' property and were used to fulfil their parents' desires and needs. Not all children had the same experiences of childhood, of course. For example, whether a child was born into a monogamous or polygamous family shaped the course of its future. Other relevant factors in the construction of the multiplicities of childhoods included gender, birth order, and the socio-political historical contexts of ancient Israel. Steinberg convincingly corrects the notion that childhood is a static category in the human life cycle, showing that meanings of childhood are not generic and cannot be carried over from one society to another.
This fascinating study, in which the author draws fruitfully on her personal cross-cultural experience of children's lives in Guatemala, exposes the reality that childhood in the Hebrew Bible was radically different from present-day childhood.
The Pausal System: Divisions in the Hebrew Biblical Text as Marked by Voweling and Stress Position. Edited by Raymond de Hoop and Paul Sanders
Published: Oct 2015
£45.00
In the Hebrew Bible, the 'pausal system' is a set of variations in voweling and stress position that marks the ends of units of various sizes. Pausal forms are already well known and have long been included in grammatical works.
However, it is rarely noticed that many pausal forms occur at unexpected positions. They may be marked with any disjunctive accent, or even with one of the conjunctive accents. The pausal forms represent an earlier division of the text and deserve special attention.
In addition to the pausal forms, the retraction of word stress (nesigah) and the use of the vowel qames on conjunctive waw also appear to mark the ends of units. All these indicators are included in this comprehensive study of the pausal system and in the accompanying list of terminal markers. The volume contains the first classified list of all the relevant forms in the Hebrew Bible.
The Pausal System: Divisions in the Hebrew Biblical Text as Marked by Voweling and Stress Position. Edited by Raymond de Hoop and Paul Sanders
£45.00
In the Hebrew Bible, the 'pausal system' is a set of variations in voweling and stress position that marks the ends of units of various sizes. Pausal forms are already well known and have long been included in grammatical works.
However, it is rarely noticed that many pausal forms occur at unexpected positions. They may be marked with any disjunctive accent, or even with one of the conjunctive accents. The pausal forms represent an earlier division of the text and deserve special attention.
In addition to the pausal forms, the retraction of word stress (nesigah) and the use of the vowel qames on conjunctive waw also appear to mark the ends of units. All these indicators are included in this comprehensive study of the pausal system and in the accompanying list of terminal markers. The volume contains the first classified list of all the relevant forms in the Hebrew Bible.
Authority and Violence in the Gideon and Abimelech Narratives: A Sociological and Literary Exploration of Judges 6-9
Published: Sep 2015
£55.00
Authority and violence exhibit a close and complex relationship in the social worlds depicted in biblical narratives as well as in ancient and modern societies. The perceived legitimacy or illegitimacy of authority and violence can hinge upon a number of factors. In the stories of Gideon and Abimelech in Judges 6 —9, lethal actions are depicted as justified, regrettable, or reproachful based, in part, on assumptions regarding kinship, honor, and justice. These narratives form an intriguing interlude within Judges as they directly broach, for the first time in the flow of biblical history, the 'reality' of dynastic kingship within Israel while telling a tale of deadly and divinely motivated reversals of power.
An interdisciplinary approach that blends social-scientific analysis driven by Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of social field, habitus, capital, and doxa with a close narrative analysis recommends new ways of understanding the biblical characters' motivations, skills, and social capital; the linguistic capital of the text's creators; and the social worlds from which the narratives emerged. By examining the narrated relations of power through a sociological lens, the study discerns and describes how political and religious power is attained, preserved, transmitted, resisted, endorsed, disguised, or divinized. Building upon this basis, concentration on narrated violence suggests how the stories might be purposed to endorse, legitimate, or resist authority in the ancient context. The study concludes with a synthesis of its results and a survey of scribalism in order to recommend historical settings for the origination of the narratives. The study demonstrates how the biblical text, as a cultural product, can both knowingly and unknowingly communicate information about a society's social relations, values, and concerns.
This is the second volume in the sub-series The Bible and Social Science.
Authority and Violence in the Gideon and Abimelech Narratives: A Sociological and Literary Exploration of Judges 6-9
£55.00
Authority and violence exhibit a close and complex relationship in the social worlds depicted in biblical narratives as well as in ancient and modern societies. The perceived legitimacy or illegitimacy of authority and violence can hinge upon a number of factors. In the stories of Gideon and Abimelech in Judges 6 —9, lethal actions are depicted as justified, regrettable, or reproachful based, in part, on assumptions regarding kinship, honor, and justice. These narratives form an intriguing interlude within Judges as they directly broach, for the first time in the flow of biblical history, the 'reality' of dynastic kingship within Israel while telling a tale of deadly and divinely motivated reversals of power.
An interdisciplinary approach that blends social-scientific analysis driven by Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of social field, habitus, capital, and doxa with a close narrative analysis recommends new ways of understanding the biblical characters' motivations, skills, and social capital; the linguistic capital of the text's creators; and the social worlds from which the narratives emerged. By examining the narrated relations of power through a sociological lens, the study discerns and describes how political and religious power is attained, preserved, transmitted, resisted, endorsed, disguised, or divinized. Building upon this basis, concentration on narrated violence suggests how the stories might be purposed to endorse, legitimate, or resist authority in the ancient context. The study concludes with a synthesis of its results and a survey of scribalism in order to recommend historical settings for the origination of the narratives. The study demonstrates how the biblical text, as a cultural product, can both knowingly and unknowingly communicate information about a society's social relations, values, and concerns.
This is the second volume in the sub-series The Bible and Social Science.
Guide to Biblical Chronology
Published: Sep 2015
£18.50
This Guide to Biblical Chronology aims to explain why different chronological proposals exist for the reigns of kings of Israel and Judah and how the conflicting chronological data preserved in the Books of Kings have come into being.
The first step is to reconstruct older chronological data so that synchronisms are in harmony with each other. Only then can the chronological data be related to extrabiblical documents; such a comparison reveals a good degree of correspondence. This means that the chronological records of the kings of Judah and Israel during the period between 930 and 586 BCE must have based on reliable annalistic records from royal archives.
After the destruction of Samaria, synchronic chronological presentations of the history of Judah and Israel were composed and the Deuteronomistic editors used them. They drew their own conclusions from the source material and created a chronology of their own, which sometimes led to the contradictions we can detect in the present form of the Hebrew Bible.
Another important result is that the 480-year period mentioned in 1 Kings 6 and the 300-year period in Judges 11 are also based on the pre-Deuteronomistic chronological tradition even though they are not based on archival material and are therefore unreliable figures.
The Guide to Biblical Chronology also deals with postbiblical Jewish chronology, showing that there were in existence two different and competing chronological systems. One was based on Daniel 9.24-27 and followed by Josephus, and the other was first advanced by Demetrius the Chronographer in the late third century BCE and was then followed in the Damascus Document from Qumran and in Second Baruch .
Guide to Biblical Chronology
£18.50
This Guide to Biblical Chronology aims to explain why different chronological proposals exist for the reigns of kings of Israel and Judah and how the conflicting chronological data preserved in the Books of Kings have come into being.
The first step is to reconstruct older chronological data so that synchronisms are in harmony with each other. Only then can the chronological data be related to extrabiblical documents; such a comparison reveals a good degree of correspondence. This means that the chronological records of the kings of Judah and Israel during the period between 930 and 586 BCE must have based on reliable annalistic records from royal archives.
After the destruction of Samaria, synchronic chronological presentations of the history of Judah and Israel were composed and the Deuteronomistic editors used them. They drew their own conclusions from the source material and created a chronology of their own, which sometimes led to the contradictions we can detect in the present form of the Hebrew Bible.
Another important result is that the 480-year period mentioned in 1 Kings 6 and the 300-year period in Judges 11 are also based on the pre-Deuteronomistic chronological tradition even though they are not based on archival material and are therefore unreliable figures.
The Guide to Biblical Chronology also deals with postbiblical Jewish chronology, showing that there were in existence two different and competing chronological systems. One was based on Daniel 9.24-27 and followed by Josephus, and the other was first advanced by Demetrius the Chronographer in the late third century BCE and was then followed in the Damascus Document from Qumran and in Second Baruch .
Solomon the Lover and the Shape of the Song of Songs
Published: Sep 2015
£50.00
Reading the Song of Songs perpetually raises the question, What is this love that has been sung about so evocatively to ever new generations? The exuberance of the poetry and the remarkable history of its reception make the understanding of what the poetry is all about the more urgent for the conscientious reader.
The shape of the Song and what this shape reveals of the poet's concerns are central for this study. Hauge's analysis discloses that a special arrangement of formally independent units, signalled by effects of repetition, is typical of its composition. The strophes are set out in a fivefold pattern containing three types of passage: narrative elements, addresses to the daughters of Jerusalem, and dialogues between the lovers.
The tension of the opening scenes dedicated to Solomon and his women, contrasted with a final scene where the king is the humble supplicant, reflects an underlying story of how Solomon the lover of many women was transformed into a lover of the One. The story is dedicated to the power of love, its character as an overwhelming force being even accented by implications of shame. Motifs of absence and separation suggest longing as the essence of love, the final image of the lover as the hart upon the fragrant mountains adding a tinge of sadness to the impression.
Themes from the Solomon tradition are important for the narrative strand. The formal shape and the cast of actors are deeply influenced by Proverbs 1 —7, not least when the poet plays havoc with venerable aspects of the wisdom tradition.
Solomon the Lover and the Shape of the Song of Songs
£50.00
Reading the Song of Songs perpetually raises the question, What is this love that has been sung about so evocatively to ever new generations? The exuberance of the poetry and the remarkable history of its reception make the understanding of what the poetry is all about the more urgent for the conscientious reader.
The shape of the Song and what this shape reveals of the poet's concerns are central for this study. Hauge's analysis discloses that a special arrangement of formally independent units, signalled by effects of repetition, is typical of its composition. The strophes are set out in a fivefold pattern containing three types of passage: narrative elements, addresses to the daughters of Jerusalem, and dialogues between the lovers.
The tension of the opening scenes dedicated to Solomon and his women, contrasted with a final scene where the king is the humble supplicant, reflects an underlying story of how Solomon the lover of many women was transformed into a lover of the One. The story is dedicated to the power of love, its character as an overwhelming force being even accented by implications of shame. Motifs of absence and separation suggest longing as the essence of love, the final image of the lover as the hart upon the fragrant mountains adding a tinge of sadness to the impression.
Themes from the Solomon tradition are important for the narrative strand. The formal shape and the cast of actors are deeply influenced by Proverbs 1 —7, not least when the poet plays havoc with venerable aspects of the wisdom tradition.
Adam, Eve, and the Devil: A New Beginning, Second Enlarged Edition
Published: Aug 2015
£22.50 – £60.00
In this book the authors develop an intriguing theory about the Canaanite origin of the biblical traditions concerning the origin of the cosmos and the creation of humankind. Adam, Eve, and the Devil tells a new story about human beginnings and at the same time proposes a fresh start for biblical research into primordial traditions.
A number of clay tablets from Ugarit, dating from the late thirteenth century BCE, throw new light, Korpel and de Moor argue, on the background of the first chapters of Genesis and the myth of Adam. In these tablets, El, the creator deity, and his wife Asherah lived in a vineyard or garden on the slopes of Mt Ararat, known in the Bible as the mountain where Noah's ark came to rest. The first sinner was not a human being, but an evil god called Horon who wanted to depose El. Horon was thrown down from the mountain of the gods, and in revenge he transformed the Tree of Life in the garden into a Tree of Death and enveloped the whole world in a poisonous fog. Adam was sent down to restore life on earth, but failed because Horon in the form of a huge serpent bit him. As a result Adam and his wife lost their immortality.
This myth found its way into the Bible, the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigraphical literature, though it was often transformed or treated critically. Adam, Eve, and the Devil traces the reception of the myth in its many forms, and also presents the oldest pictures of Adam and Eve ever identified (one of them on the front cover of the book). A second, enlarged edition is published in paperback in August, 2015.
Adam, Eve, and the Devil: A New Beginning, Second Enlarged Edition
£22.50 – £60.00
In this book the authors develop an intriguing theory about the Canaanite origin of the biblical traditions concerning the origin of the cosmos and the creation of humankind. Adam, Eve, and the Devil tells a new story about human beginnings and at the same time proposes a fresh start for biblical research into primordial traditions.
A number of clay tablets from Ugarit, dating from the late thirteenth century BCE, throw new light, Korpel and de Moor argue, on the background of the first chapters of Genesis and the myth of Adam. In these tablets, El, the creator deity, and his wife Asherah lived in a vineyard or garden on the slopes of Mt Ararat, known in the Bible as the mountain where Noah's ark came to rest. The first sinner was not a human being, but an evil god called Horon who wanted to depose El. Horon was thrown down from the mountain of the gods, and in revenge he transformed the Tree of Life in the garden into a Tree of Death and enveloped the whole world in a poisonous fog. Adam was sent down to restore life on earth, but failed because Horon in the form of a huge serpent bit him. As a result Adam and his wife lost their immortality.
This myth found its way into the Bible, the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigraphical literature, though it was often transformed or treated critically. Adam, Eve, and the Devil traces the reception of the myth in its many forms, and also presents the oldest pictures of Adam and Eve ever identified (one of them on the front cover of the book). A second, enlarged edition is published in paperback in August, 2015.
Imagination, Ideology and Inspiration: Echoes of Brueggemann in a New Generation
Published: Aug 2015
£60.00
By any account, Walter Brueggemann stands as one of the foremost interpreters of the Hebrew Bible of the past half-century. Yet the question remains of what his influence will be on the next generation of biblical scholars, who have learned from Brueggemann and taken his work in new and often surprising directions. This volume engages that question by presenting the work of fourteen of Brueggemann's former students at Columbia Theological Seminary (Decatur, Georgia) who are now biblical scholars in their own right, asking how his influence has been received and transformed by them.
Essays in this volume present imaginative new readings of well-known texts, from the crisis of God in Genesis 22 to God's birthing body in Job 38. They engage the ideology of the text, discovering the voice of a female prophet in the book of Isaiah, a Job in drag, and a feminist Qohelet. They grapple with the implications of the text for contemporary life, from reading Lamentations after Hiroshima to considering how the production of Bibles is an act of ideological control. While clearly resonating with Brueggemann's work, these essays also take his influence in new directions, from deeper engagement with rabbinic interpretation to the incorporation of new theoretical perspectives from Lacan to Žižek to Deleuze and Guattari.
An introduction by Brent Strawn considers Brueggemann's influence in the field more generally, while a response from Carolyn Sharp offers soundings for a new generation of scholars.
Imagination, Ideology and Inspiration: Echoes of Brueggemann in a New Generation
£60.00
By any account, Walter Brueggemann stands as one of the foremost interpreters of the Hebrew Bible of the past half-century. Yet the question remains of what his influence will be on the next generation of biblical scholars, who have learned from Brueggemann and taken his work in new and often surprising directions. This volume engages that question by presenting the work of fourteen of Brueggemann's former students at Columbia Theological Seminary (Decatur, Georgia) who are now biblical scholars in their own right, asking how his influence has been received and transformed by them.
Essays in this volume present imaginative new readings of well-known texts, from the crisis of God in Genesis 22 to God's birthing body in Job 38. They engage the ideology of the text, discovering the voice of a female prophet in the book of Isaiah, a Job in drag, and a feminist Qohelet. They grapple with the implications of the text for contemporary life, from reading Lamentations after Hiroshima to considering how the production of Bibles is an act of ideological control. While clearly resonating with Brueggemann's work, these essays also take his influence in new directions, from deeper engagement with rabbinic interpretation to the incorporation of new theoretical perspectives from Lacan to Žižek to Deleuze and Guattari.
An introduction by Brent Strawn considers Brueggemann's influence in the field more generally, while a response from Carolyn Sharp offers soundings for a new generation of scholars.
The Book of Job
Published: Jun 2015
£25.00 – £70.00
John Gray, who was Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages in the University of Aberdeen, left at his death in 2000 a complete manuscript of a commentary on the Book of Job. Rich in text-critical and philological observations, the manuscript has been carefully prepared for the press; it will soon become a standard work for scholars and students of the biblical book, and a fitting tribute to the sound judgment and innovative scholarship of its author.
John Gray was noted especially for his books The Legacy of Canaan (1957; 2nd edn, 1964), The Biblical Doctrine of the Reign of God (1979), and his commentaries, I and II Kings (1963; 2nd edn, 1970) and Joshua, Judges and Ruth (1967). Gray's commentary on Job, which is prefaced by a lengthy general introduction, is the first volume in a new series of commentaries on the text of the Hebrew Bible. All the volumes will concentrate on the text criticism and philology of the Hebrew text, a feature notably lacking or merely perfunctory in many current biblical commentary series.
The Book of Job
£25.00 – £70.00
John Gray, who was Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages in the University of Aberdeen, left at his death in 2000 a complete manuscript of a commentary on the Book of Job. Rich in text-critical and philological observations, the manuscript has been carefully prepared for the press; it will soon become a standard work for scholars and students of the biblical book, and a fitting tribute to the sound judgment and innovative scholarship of its author.
John Gray was noted especially for his books The Legacy of Canaan (1957; 2nd edn, 1964), The Biblical Doctrine of the Reign of God (1979), and his commentaries, I and II Kings (1963; 2nd edn, 1970) and Joshua, Judges and Ruth (1967). Gray's commentary on Job, which is prefaced by a lengthy general introduction, is the first volume in a new series of commentaries on the text of the Hebrew Bible. All the volumes will concentrate on the text criticism and philology of the Hebrew text, a feature notably lacking or merely perfunctory in many current biblical commentary series.
Sin, Impurity, Sacrifice, Atonement: The Priestly Conceptions
Published: May 2015
£16.50 – £50.00
The goal of this closely reasoned study is to explain why, in Priestly texts of the Hebrew Bible, the verb kipper, traditionally translated 'atone', means the way of dealing both with sin and with impurity —which might seem very different things.
Sklar's first key conclusion is that when the context is sin, certain sins also pollute; so 'atonement' may include some element of purification. His second conclusion is that, when the context is impurity, and kipper means not 'atone' but 'effect purgation', impurity also endangers; so kipper can include some element of ransoming.
In fact, sin and impurity, while distinct categories in themselves, have this in common: each of them requires both ransoming and purification. It is for this reason that kipper can be used in both settings.
This benchmark study concludes with a careful examination of the famous sentence of Leviticus 17.11 that 'blood makes atonement' (kipper) and explains how, in the Priestly ideology, blood sacrifice was able to accomplish both ransom and purification.
Sin, Impurity, Sacrifice, Atonement: The Priestly Conceptions
£16.50 – £50.00
The goal of this closely reasoned study is to explain why, in Priestly texts of the Hebrew Bible, the verb kipper, traditionally translated 'atone', means the way of dealing both with sin and with impurity —which might seem very different things.
Sklar's first key conclusion is that when the context is sin, certain sins also pollute; so 'atonement' may include some element of purification. His second conclusion is that, when the context is impurity, and kipper means not 'atone' but 'effect purgation', impurity also endangers; so kipper can include some element of ransoming.
In fact, sin and impurity, while distinct categories in themselves, have this in common: each of them requires both ransoming and purification. It is for this reason that kipper can be used in both settings.
This benchmark study concludes with a careful examination of the famous sentence of Leviticus 17.11 that 'blood makes atonement' (kipper) and explains how, in the Priestly ideology, blood sacrifice was able to accomplish both ransom and purification.
Borges and the Bible
Published: May 2015
£50.00
Jorge Luis Borges is the darling of authors and critics who were once described as postmodern. Borges's fictions assail the boundaries between text, world and self. In one sense, the fictions are mere rhetorical games, puzzles, or 'tricks', which disrupt communication (and interpretation), but they also suggest —at least to some —metaphysical uncertainties. To read them is as if one read the fictions of Hume or the Buddha.
Most of the literary and biblical scholars in this volume pair the Bible and its scholarship with one or more of Borges's short fictions (particularly those first collected in English in Ficciones ), but some venture into Borges's essays, poetry, and his life story (as he and others have told it). As to Bibles, some essayists focus on particular texts from the Hebrew Bible (like Genesis, Samuel, Kings or Job) or the Christian New Testament (like Mark, 2 Corinthians, or Revelation), while others engage traditions of interpretation like Gnosticism, the Kabbalah or academic biblical scholarship. Several focus on canon, translation, the craft of fiction, religion or hermeneutics as a way of thinking about Borges and the Bible.
With Borges, interpretation is ubiquitous. Whether consciously fictionalizing or not, all (biblical) interpretation transforms its precursor. All (biblical) interpretation becomes a play with secrecy and revelation. Borgesian Bibles and scholarship are labyrinths, gardens of forking paths, unsettling and distorting mirrors. With Borges, biblical scholars come face to face with their finitude, obsession, fascination, ambivalence, and inevitable heresy vis-à-vis ta biblia.
Borges and the Bible
£50.00
Jorge Luis Borges is the darling of authors and critics who were once described as postmodern. Borges's fictions assail the boundaries between text, world and self. In one sense, the fictions are mere rhetorical games, puzzles, or 'tricks', which disrupt communication (and interpretation), but they also suggest —at least to some —metaphysical uncertainties. To read them is as if one read the fictions of Hume or the Buddha.
Most of the literary and biblical scholars in this volume pair the Bible and its scholarship with one or more of Borges's short fictions (particularly those first collected in English in Ficciones ), but some venture into Borges's essays, poetry, and his life story (as he and others have told it). As to Bibles, some essayists focus on particular texts from the Hebrew Bible (like Genesis, Samuel, Kings or Job) or the Christian New Testament (like Mark, 2 Corinthians, or Revelation), while others engage traditions of interpretation like Gnosticism, the Kabbalah or academic biblical scholarship. Several focus on canon, translation, the craft of fiction, religion or hermeneutics as a way of thinking about Borges and the Bible.
With Borges, interpretation is ubiquitous. Whether consciously fictionalizing or not, all (biblical) interpretation transforms its precursor. All (biblical) interpretation becomes a play with secrecy and revelation. Borgesian Bibles and scholarship are labyrinths, gardens of forking paths, unsettling and distorting mirrors. With Borges, biblical scholars come face to face with their finitude, obsession, fascination, ambivalence, and inevitable heresy vis-à-vis ta biblia.
The Ancient Near East in the Nineteenth Century: I. Claiming and Conquering
Published: Apr 2015
£22.50 – £70.00
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, little was known of the ancient Near East except for what was preserved in the Bible and Classical literature. By the end of that century, an amazing transformation had occurred: the basic outline of ancient Near Eastern history was now understood and the material culture of the region was recognizable to the general public. This three-volume study explores the various ways by which non-specialists would have encountered ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Holy Land and how they derived and constructed meaning from those discoveries. McGeough challenges the simplistic view that the experience of the ancient Near East was solely a matter of 'othering' and shows how different people claimed the Near East as their own space and how connections were drawn between the ancient and contemporary worlds.
Volume I traces how the study of the ancient Near East developed into a professional discipline and how interpretative frameworks were gradually standardized throughout the nineteenth century. Some of the best-sellers of the period were accounts of the early explorers of the region and, beginning with the Napoleonic expedition, the book examines how ancient Near Eastern discoveries were communicated to the public. It looks at how archaeological reporting was shaped in this period and how the study of the ancient Near East was employed to understand issues of progress and decline and was referenced in the political and social satire of the period. It also documents the growth of middle-class tourism to the region and considers how the changing experiences of travel impacted Near Eastern studies. Throughout, the book observes how the ancient Near East mirrored and subverted British society and played a role in European and North American thinking about their places in a larger global and historical perspective.
The Ancient Near East in the Nineteenth Century: I. Claiming and Conquering
£22.50 – £70.00
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, little was known of the ancient Near East except for what was preserved in the Bible and Classical literature. By the end of that century, an amazing transformation had occurred: the basic outline of ancient Near Eastern history was now understood and the material culture of the region was recognizable to the general public. This three-volume study explores the various ways by which non-specialists would have encountered ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Holy Land and how they derived and constructed meaning from those discoveries. McGeough challenges the simplistic view that the experience of the ancient Near East was solely a matter of 'othering' and shows how different people claimed the Near East as their own space and how connections were drawn between the ancient and contemporary worlds.
Volume I traces how the study of the ancient Near East developed into a professional discipline and how interpretative frameworks were gradually standardized throughout the nineteenth century. Some of the best-sellers of the period were accounts of the early explorers of the region and, beginning with the Napoleonic expedition, the book examines how ancient Near Eastern discoveries were communicated to the public. It looks at how archaeological reporting was shaped in this period and how the study of the ancient Near East was employed to understand issues of progress and decline and was referenced in the political and social satire of the period. It also documents the growth of middle-class tourism to the region and considers how the changing experiences of travel impacted Near Eastern studies. Throughout, the book observes how the ancient Near East mirrored and subverted British society and played a role in European and North American thinking about their places in a larger global and historical perspective.
Text, Time, and Temple: Literary, Historical and Ritual Studies in Leviticus
Published: Mar 2015
£60.00
In their different ways the essays in this collection ask, Why was Leviticus written? What is the relation of text to practice, and to the development of the idea of an Israelite society centred in its Temple through all vicissitudes of its history?
The thirteen contributors are engaged in exploring the intersection of literary, historical and ritual approaches to Leviticus, as the central book of the Torah and as a utopian vision of an ideal society. Leading scholars of Leviticus and the Pentateuch, like James Watts, Israel Knohl and Christophe Nihan, combine with others whose primary interest is magic, reception, cultural memory and gender.
The collection begins with a chapter by Michael Hundley on the ancient Near Eastern background of the priestly code and the issue of divine fluidity. Several scholars consider the social function of the book, particularly in the Second Temple period. James Watts, for instance, thinks that it combats scepticism about the efficacy of ritual; Reinhard MÌ_ller argues that the 'I am Yhwh' formula locates the texts in a liturgical setting. Christophe Nihan discusses the manipulation of blood in sacrifice as having an indexical function, as part of the 'templization' of Israel.
Other chapters engage in analyses of particular texts. Leigh Trevaskis advocates a symbolic interpretation of the prohibition of intercourse with a menstruant. Deborah Rooke analyses the gender and ethnic implications of the story of the blasphemer in Leviticus 24. Similarly, Francis Landy compares the chapters on the Nazirite and the woman suspected of adultery as challenges to the sacerdotal order. Jonathan Burnside argues that the prohibition of necromancy is integral to Leviticus 20. The book concludes with a moving reflection by Jeremy Milgrom on his father's views on the ethical implications of his work, and particularly its relevance to Israeli —Palestinian relations.
Text, Time, and Temple: Literary, Historical and Ritual Studies in Leviticus
£60.00
In their different ways the essays in this collection ask, Why was Leviticus written? What is the relation of text to practice, and to the development of the idea of an Israelite society centred in its Temple through all vicissitudes of its history?
The thirteen contributors are engaged in exploring the intersection of literary, historical and ritual approaches to Leviticus, as the central book of the Torah and as a utopian vision of an ideal society. Leading scholars of Leviticus and the Pentateuch, like James Watts, Israel Knohl and Christophe Nihan, combine with others whose primary interest is magic, reception, cultural memory and gender.
The collection begins with a chapter by Michael Hundley on the ancient Near Eastern background of the priestly code and the issue of divine fluidity. Several scholars consider the social function of the book, particularly in the Second Temple period. James Watts, for instance, thinks that it combats scepticism about the efficacy of ritual; Reinhard MÌ_ller argues that the 'I am Yhwh' formula locates the texts in a liturgical setting. Christophe Nihan discusses the manipulation of blood in sacrifice as having an indexical function, as part of the 'templization' of Israel.
Other chapters engage in analyses of particular texts. Leigh Trevaskis advocates a symbolic interpretation of the prohibition of intercourse with a menstruant. Deborah Rooke analyses the gender and ethnic implications of the story of the blasphemer in Leviticus 24. Similarly, Francis Landy compares the chapters on the Nazirite and the woman suspected of adultery as challenges to the sacerdotal order. Jonathan Burnside argues that the prohibition of necromancy is integral to Leviticus 20. The book concludes with a moving reflection by Jeremy Milgrom on his father's views on the ethical implications of his work, and particularly its relevance to Israeli —Palestinian relations.
Reading a Tendentious Bible: Essays in Honor of Robert B. Coote
Published: Oct 2014
£75.00
Robert B. Coote is internationally renowned for work on the Bible and the ancient Near East that crosses the usual disciplinary boundaries. Whether re-examining arcane inscriptions, conventional views of the Pentateuch, Israel's early history, the composition of a particular book of the Bible, or the making of the Bible in the broader sense, his question has been not whether some texts are tendentious and others not, but rather how each biblical composition or re-composition pushes back against its contexts. Coote's skill in explicating the subtle interplay between contextual foil and literary structure and content has been a major characteristic of his work.
Nineteen colleagues, friends, and former students have joined to honour Bob Coote with this Festschrift. Their wide-ranging contributions cover many, but not all of the interests of his prodigious career —textual criticism (Emanuel Tov), literary studies in several guises (Barbara Green, Uriah Y. Kim, Annette Schellenberg, Chris Seeman), historiography (Norman K. Gottwald, Ernst Axel Knauf, Keith W. Whitelam), social institutions (John H. Elliott, Sarah Shectman), text and social context (Marvin L. Chaney, Eugene Eung-Chun Park, Herman C. Waetjen), cultural memory (Ronald Hendel), ethnic identity (Aaron J. Brody), relationship of oral and written 'texts' (Antoinette Clark Wire), iconography and text (Annette Weissenrieder), cuneiform and gender studies (Mary Frances Wogec), and hermeneutics (Chandler Stokes).
Reading a Tendentious Bible: Essays in Honor of Robert B. Coote
£75.00
Robert B. Coote is internationally renowned for work on the Bible and the ancient Near East that crosses the usual disciplinary boundaries. Whether re-examining arcane inscriptions, conventional views of the Pentateuch, Israel's early history, the composition of a particular book of the Bible, or the making of the Bible in the broader sense, his question has been not whether some texts are tendentious and others not, but rather how each biblical composition or re-composition pushes back against its contexts. Coote's skill in explicating the subtle interplay between contextual foil and literary structure and content has been a major characteristic of his work.
Nineteen colleagues, friends, and former students have joined to honour Bob Coote with this Festschrift. Their wide-ranging contributions cover many, but not all of the interests of his prodigious career —textual criticism (Emanuel Tov), literary studies in several guises (Barbara Green, Uriah Y. Kim, Annette Schellenberg, Chris Seeman), historiography (Norman K. Gottwald, Ernst Axel Knauf, Keith W. Whitelam), social institutions (John H. Elliott, Sarah Shectman), text and social context (Marvin L. Chaney, Eugene Eung-Chun Park, Herman C. Waetjen), cultural memory (Ronald Hendel), ethnic identity (Aaron J. Brody), relationship of oral and written 'texts' (Antoinette Clark Wire), iconography and text (Annette Weissenrieder), cuneiform and gender studies (Mary Frances Wogec), and hermeneutics (Chandler Stokes).
Deuteronomy and Environmental Amnesia
Published: Sep 2014
£45.00
Modern Westerners suffer from environmental amnesia, our failure to remember properly our intimate connections to the places in our lives and to the other inhabitants of these places, both human and non-human. Although environmental amnesia may be the underlying diagnosis of our contemporary ecological problems, in Deuteronomy and Environmental Amnesia Raymond Person argues that environmental amnesia has roots in ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, and that ancient forms of environmental amnesia are evident in the book of Deuteronomy.
Raymond Person combines the ecological hermeneutics of the Earth Bible project for the first time with an emerging approach in environmental philosophy —that is, environmental hermeneutics which draws significantly from the works of Heidegger, Gadamer, Habermas and Ricoeur. As he explores the presence of ancient forms of environmental amnesia in Deuteronomy, he draws extensively from other approaches to the ancient Near East and the Bible that emphasize the interactions between material culture and text and that take seriously the Other as portrayed in the Bible, especially household archaeology, zooarchaeology, feminist approaches, and postcolonial approaches. His analysis discovers not only forms of environmental amnesia that the Deuteronomic school suffered from and promoted ideologically, but also partial remedies for forms of ancient environmental amnesia in some of the Deuteronomic legislation. His reflection on environmental amnesia and its partial remedies in the text of Deuteronomy provides insights into our modern forms of environmental amnesia and how we may begin to lessen its effects on the Earth community.
Between the introduction and conclusion, the volume contains two parts. The first part consists of chapters on how environmental amnesia exists in various themes in Deuteronomy: the family household, land versus wilderness, Israel versus the nations, clean versus unclean animals, and urban versus rural. The second part is somewhat more like a traditional commentary, focusing on themes in selected passages, including herem in Deut. 7.1-26, the sabbath year in Deut. 15.1-18, war in Deut. 20.1-20, first-fruits and the third-year tithe in Deut. 26.1-19, and eschatology in Deut. 28.1-68 and 30.1-20.
Deuteronomy and Environmental Amnesia
£45.00
Modern Westerners suffer from environmental amnesia, our failure to remember properly our intimate connections to the places in our lives and to the other inhabitants of these places, both human and non-human. Although environmental amnesia may be the underlying diagnosis of our contemporary ecological problems, in Deuteronomy and Environmental Amnesia Raymond Person argues that environmental amnesia has roots in ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, and that ancient forms of environmental amnesia are evident in the book of Deuteronomy.
Raymond Person combines the ecological hermeneutics of the Earth Bible project for the first time with an emerging approach in environmental philosophy —that is, environmental hermeneutics which draws significantly from the works of Heidegger, Gadamer, Habermas and Ricoeur. As he explores the presence of ancient forms of environmental amnesia in Deuteronomy, he draws extensively from other approaches to the ancient Near East and the Bible that emphasize the interactions between material culture and text and that take seriously the Other as portrayed in the Bible, especially household archaeology, zooarchaeology, feminist approaches, and postcolonial approaches. His analysis discovers not only forms of environmental amnesia that the Deuteronomic school suffered from and promoted ideologically, but also partial remedies for forms of ancient environmental amnesia in some of the Deuteronomic legislation. His reflection on environmental amnesia and its partial remedies in the text of Deuteronomy provides insights into our modern forms of environmental amnesia and how we may begin to lessen its effects on the Earth community.
Between the introduction and conclusion, the volume contains two parts. The first part consists of chapters on how environmental amnesia exists in various themes in Deuteronomy: the family household, land versus wilderness, Israel versus the nations, clean versus unclean animals, and urban versus rural. The second part is somewhat more like a traditional commentary, focusing on themes in selected passages, including herem in Deut. 7.1-26, the sabbath year in Deut. 15.1-18, war in Deut. 20.1-20, first-fruits and the third-year tithe in Deut. 26.1-19, and eschatology in Deut. 28.1-68 and 30.1-20.
Finding Wisdom in Nature: An Eco-Wisdom Reading of the Book of Job
Published: Sep 2014
£40.00
Wisdom, where can she be found?' This question, at the core of Job 28, is arguably the central question also of the entire book of Job.
Where is Wisdom found in Job 28? Habel's answer may be surprising: in the domains and forces of nature, in the ecosystems of the cosmos! And who employs the 'scientific approach' of the ancient Wisdom School to discern this Wisdom? A Sage called God during the process of creation. This key chapter, Job 28, is therefore where Habel begins his ecological commentary, using an approach he designates an eco-wisdom reading.
In the preceding 27 chapters of the Book of Job, the focus had seemed to be on the question of where justice could be found. Job has been ready to take God to court in order to find justice. Yet, throughout these chapters there has also been a question about Wisdom, raised by Job and each of his friends, though it has remained churning in the background.
When God finally answers Job, God communicates —via nature —about the 'design' of the cosmos. During his journey through the cosmos with his divine mentor, depicted in the divine speeches of Job 38 —41, Job is challenged to discern the 'way,' the 'place' and the inter-relationship of the domains and forces of nature, which is to say, their dynamic innate Wisdom.
In his final speech, Job admits he does not know everything and dismisses his plan to take God to court, and the claim for justice lapses. In its place, Job declares he has 'seen' or 'observed' God —presumably in the ecosystems of the cosmos that God has shown him. So the Book of Job ends with his experience of what we may call an 'ecological conversion'.
Finding Wisdom in Nature: An Eco-Wisdom Reading of the Book of Job
£40.00
Wisdom, where can she be found?' This question, at the core of Job 28, is arguably the central question also of the entire book of Job.
Where is Wisdom found in Job 28? Habel's answer may be surprising: in the domains and forces of nature, in the ecosystems of the cosmos! And who employs the 'scientific approach' of the ancient Wisdom School to discern this Wisdom? A Sage called God during the process of creation. This key chapter, Job 28, is therefore where Habel begins his ecological commentary, using an approach he designates an eco-wisdom reading.
In the preceding 27 chapters of the Book of Job, the focus had seemed to be on the question of where justice could be found. Job has been ready to take God to court in order to find justice. Yet, throughout these chapters there has also been a question about Wisdom, raised by Job and each of his friends, though it has remained churning in the background.
When God finally answers Job, God communicates —via nature —about the 'design' of the cosmos. During his journey through the cosmos with his divine mentor, depicted in the divine speeches of Job 38 —41, Job is challenged to discern the 'way,' the 'place' and the inter-relationship of the domains and forces of nature, which is to say, their dynamic innate Wisdom.
In his final speech, Job admits he does not know everything and dismisses his plan to take God to court, and the claim for justice lapses. In its place, Job declares he has 'seen' or 'observed' God —presumably in the ecosystems of the cosmos that God has shown him. So the Book of Job ends with his experience of what we may call an 'ecological conversion'.
Discourse, Dialogue, and Debate in the Bible: Essays in Honour of Frank H. Polak
Published: Aug 2014
£70.00
Frank H. Polak's contributions to Biblical Studies cover many fields, from Septuagint and Qumran studies to many other disciplines. His most important contributions in recent decades, however, have been to the narrative criticism and discourse analysis of the Bible, including their application to issues of date and authorship, which have been debated since ancient times.
Polak's work is informed by many branches of general and Semitic linguistics, social anthropology and historiography, along with a broad, humanistic approach. In his work, he has attempted to balance literary, linguistic and historical criticism in order to achieve a synthesis of these separate but overlapping fields, all of them necessary for reading the Hebrew Bible in a responsible manner.
This volume is offered to Frank by friends and colleagues from Tel Aviv University, where he has taught for almost 40 years, and from other academic institutions, in honour of his illustrious career and on the occasion of his retirement from teaching. The contributors all debate questions of discourse, dialogue, language and history —questions that have been central to Frank's researches over the years.
This is the seventh volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner-Idan), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
Discourse, Dialogue, and Debate in the Bible: Essays in Honour of Frank H. Polak
£70.00
Frank H. Polak's contributions to Biblical Studies cover many fields, from Septuagint and Qumran studies to many other disciplines. His most important contributions in recent decades, however, have been to the narrative criticism and discourse analysis of the Bible, including their application to issues of date and authorship, which have been debated since ancient times.
Polak's work is informed by many branches of general and Semitic linguistics, social anthropology and historiography, along with a broad, humanistic approach. In his work, he has attempted to balance literary, linguistic and historical criticism in order to achieve a synthesis of these separate but overlapping fields, all of them necessary for reading the Hebrew Bible in a responsible manner.
This volume is offered to Frank by friends and colleagues from Tel Aviv University, where he has taught for almost 40 years, and from other academic institutions, in honour of his illustrious career and on the occasion of his retirement from teaching. The contributors all debate questions of discourse, dialogue, language and history —questions that have been central to Frank's researches over the years.
This is the seventh volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner-Idan), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
Methods, Theories, Imagination: Social Scientific Approaches in Biblical Studies
Published: July 2014
£60.00
Social-scientific ways of knowing, thinking and being are inescapable; in the contemporary world a social-scientific perspective seems less an option than an unavoidable constituent of the public and private imagination. The social sciences play a central role in the self-understandings of contemporary societies and in the lives of their citizens.
Biblical studies has been dramatically impacted by these intellectual developments. This book brings together new essays that reflect on the current state of social-scientific and cultural studies approaches in biblical studies, critically review the theoretical and methodological issues and explore the value of these approaches through a number of fresh substantive applications.
Methods, Theories, Imagination is divided into five sections: 1. Methods, Perspectives and Theory (James G. Crossley, István Czachesz, Linda A. Dietch, Amy Erickson), 2. Studies in the Sociology of Deviance (Outi Lehtipuu, Mark Finney), 3. Social Psychology and Trauma Theory (Rebecca S. Watson, Jeremiah W. Cataldo), 4. Cultural Studies, the Social Sciences and the Hebrew Bible (Frauke Uhlenbruch, Johanna Stiebert)., 5. Anthropology and Archaeology (Ryan N. Roberts, Emanuel Pfoh). This is the first volume in the series The Bible and Social Science.
Methods, Theories, Imagination: Social Scientific Approaches in Biblical Studies
£60.00
Social-scientific ways of knowing, thinking and being are inescapable; in the contemporary world a social-scientific perspective seems less an option than an unavoidable constituent of the public and private imagination. The social sciences play a central role in the self-understandings of contemporary societies and in the lives of their citizens.
Biblical studies has been dramatically impacted by these intellectual developments. This book brings together new essays that reflect on the current state of social-scientific and cultural studies approaches in biblical studies, critically review the theoretical and methodological issues and explore the value of these approaches through a number of fresh substantive applications.
Methods, Theories, Imagination is divided into five sections: 1. Methods, Perspectives and Theory (James G. Crossley, István Czachesz, Linda A. Dietch, Amy Erickson), 2. Studies in the Sociology of Deviance (Outi Lehtipuu, Mark Finney), 3. Social Psychology and Trauma Theory (Rebecca S. Watson, Jeremiah W. Cataldo), 4. Cultural Studies, the Social Sciences and the Hebrew Bible (Frauke Uhlenbruch, Johanna Stiebert)., 5. Anthropology and Archaeology (Ryan N. Roberts, Emanuel Pfoh). This is the first volume in the series The Bible and Social Science.
Moses: The Man and the Myth in Music
Published: July 2014
£50.00
With this book, Leneman completes a trilogy on musical interpretations of biblical narratives. Her previous books were Love, Lust, and Lunacy: The Stories of Saul and David in Music (2010) and The Performed Bible: The Story of Ruth in Opera and Oratorio (2007).
Moses has often been thought of more as a myth than as a man. Later retellings of his story —particularly in operas and oratorios —demythologize him, portraying him and all the characters surrounding him on a more human scale. Moses the statue comes down from his pedestal and becomes a living man. For example, in the Bible the primary relationship of Moses is with God; secondarily it is with the people of Israel, rather than with individuals. In opera and the many oratorio settings the figure of Moses is enhanced by his representation as a man with many emotional ties —to Zipporah, Miriam or Aaron, or to all three.
Re-reading and re-telling biblical narratives through musical settings gives voice to often silent biblical characters, offering the reader and listener unexpected ways to hear and understand their story. In Moses: The Man and the Myth in Music, highlighting how Moses was richly imagined in oratorios and operas, Leneman discusses 16 operas and oratorios from the eighteenth to the twentieth century —including works by Handel, Rossini, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Schoenberg and more obscure composers whose music has seldom or never been explored.
Through music, the listener can hear and also feel the suffering of the Israelites; the passion of Moses as leader, liberator, and even lover; the intensity of Miriam's vision and commitment; and the whole range of emotion experienced by every character that inhabits this story. The music and librettos not only fill in the spaces between the lines, but go beyond the margins of the biblical text to conjure up a multi-dimensional world.
Moses: The Man and the Myth in Music
£50.00
With this book, Leneman completes a trilogy on musical interpretations of biblical narratives. Her previous books were Love, Lust, and Lunacy: The Stories of Saul and David in Music (2010) and The Performed Bible: The Story of Ruth in Opera and Oratorio (2007).
Moses has often been thought of more as a myth than as a man. Later retellings of his story —particularly in operas and oratorios —demythologize him, portraying him and all the characters surrounding him on a more human scale. Moses the statue comes down from his pedestal and becomes a living man. For example, in the Bible the primary relationship of Moses is with God; secondarily it is with the people of Israel, rather than with individuals. In opera and the many oratorio settings the figure of Moses is enhanced by his representation as a man with many emotional ties —to Zipporah, Miriam or Aaron, or to all three.
Re-reading and re-telling biblical narratives through musical settings gives voice to often silent biblical characters, offering the reader and listener unexpected ways to hear and understand their story. In Moses: The Man and the Myth in Music, highlighting how Moses was richly imagined in oratorios and operas, Leneman discusses 16 operas and oratorios from the eighteenth to the twentieth century —including works by Handel, Rossini, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Schoenberg and more obscure composers whose music has seldom or never been explored.
Through music, the listener can hear and also feel the suffering of the Israelites; the passion of Moses as leader, liberator, and even lover; the intensity of Miriam's vision and commitment; and the whole range of emotion experienced by every character that inhabits this story. The music and librettos not only fill in the spaces between the lines, but go beyond the margins of the biblical text to conjure up a multi-dimensional world.
Anatomical Idiom and Emotional Expression: A Comparison of the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint
Published: May 2014
£75.00
The Hebrew Bible abounds in imagery linking feelings and emotions with various parts of the body. These vividly painted word pictures capture the imagination, and the reader can identify physically as well as emotionally with what is being expressed. But this colourful imagery, with its forthright and earthy language, is rather less apparent in modern English translations.
Such substitutions are not just common in English translations, but are also found in the first authorized translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint. Can the changes to body imagery found in English translations be explained as part of a process that began with the Greek text, which often gave a more muted picture than the Hebrew original?
This study explores these questions by making a detailed comparative analysis of anatomical idioms (body imagery) associated with the emotions of distress, fear, anger and gladness in the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint. Differences are identified through literal translation into English from both Hebrew and Greek and the results are categorized, discussed and analysed, and detailed statistical information is presented. The data offer a rich resource for further research, and the analysis provides fascinating insights into the minds of the Greek translators and findings that are surprisingly complex.
Anatomical Idiom and Emotional Expression: A Comparison of the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint
£75.00
The Hebrew Bible abounds in imagery linking feelings and emotions with various parts of the body. These vividly painted word pictures capture the imagination, and the reader can identify physically as well as emotionally with what is being expressed. But this colourful imagery, with its forthright and earthy language, is rather less apparent in modern English translations.
Such substitutions are not just common in English translations, but are also found in the first authorized translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint. Can the changes to body imagery found in English translations be explained as part of a process that began with the Greek text, which often gave a more muted picture than the Hebrew original?
This study explores these questions by making a detailed comparative analysis of anatomical idioms (body imagery) associated with the emotions of distress, fear, anger and gladness in the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint. Differences are identified through literal translation into English from both Hebrew and Greek and the results are categorized, discussed and analysed, and detailed statistical information is presented. The data offer a rich resource for further research, and the analysis provides fascinating insights into the minds of the Greek translators and findings that are surprisingly complex.
The Recovery of the Ancient Hebrew Language: The Lexicographical Writings of D. Winton Thomas
Published: Oct 2013
£75.00
David Winton Thomas (1901 —1970) was Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge (1938 —1968) and one of the most distinguished British lexicographers of the Hebrew language. His special contribution was the identification of words in Biblical Hebrew that had lain undetected since ancient times, sometimes because they were homonyms of other, better-known words. He called his project 'The Recovery of the Ancient Hebrew Language', the title of his inaugural lecture at Cambridge in 1939, as well as of the present book.
In this volume John Day has gathered together all Winton Thomas's lexicographical articles (nearly 400 pages altogether) in a convenient format; hitherto these have been scattered around many different journals and books. In addition, he has prefaced them with a very substantial introduction of some 150 pages, in which he offers the first thorough and systematic evaluation of Winton Thomas's work.
Day concludes that there are definitely occasions where Thomas has made a positive and enduring contribution to Hebrew lexicography, and it is important that modern scholars do not overlook these conclusions. On the other hand, it becomes clear that Thomas was sometimes too prone to appeal to cognate Semitic languages (especially Arabic) in the search for new meanings of Hebrew words when this was unnecessary. In seeking to make a thorough appraisal of Thomas's proposals this volume offers a valuable contribution to the study of Biblical Hebrew lexicography.
The Recovery of the Ancient Hebrew Language: The Lexicographical Writings of D. Winton Thomas
£75.00
David Winton Thomas (1901 —1970) was Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge (1938 —1968) and one of the most distinguished British lexicographers of the Hebrew language. His special contribution was the identification of words in Biblical Hebrew that had lain undetected since ancient times, sometimes because they were homonyms of other, better-known words. He called his project 'The Recovery of the Ancient Hebrew Language', the title of his inaugural lecture at Cambridge in 1939, as well as of the present book.
In this volume John Day has gathered together all Winton Thomas's lexicographical articles (nearly 400 pages altogether) in a convenient format; hitherto these have been scattered around many different journals and books. In addition, he has prefaced them with a very substantial introduction of some 150 pages, in which he offers the first thorough and systematic evaluation of Winton Thomas's work.
Day concludes that there are definitely occasions where Thomas has made a positive and enduring contribution to Hebrew lexicography, and it is important that modern scholars do not overlook these conclusions. On the other hand, it becomes clear that Thomas was sometimes too prone to appeal to cognate Semitic languages (especially Arabic) in the search for new meanings of Hebrew words when this was unnecessary. In seeking to make a thorough appraisal of Thomas's proposals this volume offers a valuable contribution to the study of Biblical Hebrew lexicography.
Encountering Violence in the Bible
Published: Oct 2013
£60.00
Our world is full of violence, with repeated acts of terrorism and generally rising rates of violent criminal acts as the most obvious forms of the phenomenon in the Western world. It even reached the peaceful shores of Norway in the summer of 2011. This was one of the reasons why the first international meeting of the Norwegian Summer Academy for Biblical Studies was devoted to the topic 'Violence as an Ethical Challenge in the Bible'.
Eighteen biblical scholars from nine different countries (Joshua Berman, Lennart Bostršm, Friedmann Eissler, Torleif Elgvin, LarsOlov Eriksson, Karin Finsterbusch, Georg Fischer, Terence E. Fretheim, Hallvard Hagelia, Dana M. Harris, Robert L. Hubbard, Jr, ÌÉrstein Justnes, Gordon McConville, Kirsten Nielsen, Tommy Wasserman, Karl William Weyde, Peter Wick and Markus Zehnder) met on the beautiful premises of Ansgar Theological Seminary to discuss some of the most fundamental aspects of the topic. The papers presented at the conference are collected in the present volume, dealing mostly with the Hebrew Bible, but covering also the New Testament, Jewish literature from the Second Temple period and the Qur'an.
The contributions reflect a refreshing variety of scholarly and theological approaches. One of the fundamental questions addressed in several studies is how biblical texts justifying violence can be properly understood and used today. Other questions raised are how violent some of the often-criticized biblical passages really are and how violence can be overcome.
Encountering Violence in the Bible
£60.00
Our world is full of violence, with repeated acts of terrorism and generally rising rates of violent criminal acts as the most obvious forms of the phenomenon in the Western world. It even reached the peaceful shores of Norway in the summer of 2011. This was one of the reasons why the first international meeting of the Norwegian Summer Academy for Biblical Studies was devoted to the topic 'Violence as an Ethical Challenge in the Bible'.
Eighteen biblical scholars from nine different countries (Joshua Berman, Lennart Bostršm, Friedmann Eissler, Torleif Elgvin, LarsOlov Eriksson, Karin Finsterbusch, Georg Fischer, Terence E. Fretheim, Hallvard Hagelia, Dana M. Harris, Robert L. Hubbard, Jr, ÌÉrstein Justnes, Gordon McConville, Kirsten Nielsen, Tommy Wasserman, Karl William Weyde, Peter Wick and Markus Zehnder) met on the beautiful premises of Ansgar Theological Seminary to discuss some of the most fundamental aspects of the topic. The papers presented at the conference are collected in the present volume, dealing mostly with the Hebrew Bible, but covering also the New Testament, Jewish literature from the Second Temple period and the Qur'an.
The contributions reflect a refreshing variety of scholarly and theological approaches. One of the fundamental questions addressed in several studies is how biblical texts justifying violence can be properly understood and used today. Other questions raised are how violent some of the often-criticized biblical passages really are and how violence can be overcome.
Abigail, Wife of David, and Other Ancient Oriental Women
Published: Oct 2013
£50.00
This is the first book devoted to the biblical figure of Abigail, whose encounter with David is narrated in 1 Samuel 25. An interdisciplinary study, its seven papers combine biblical criticism, narratology, history of religions, Assyriology and the study of midrash.
One article (by Michaël Guichard) brings to light a major historical analogy from the Mari documents to the triangular relationship of Abigail, Nabal and David. The career of the princess Inib-sharri, first married to an old sheikh, and, after his sudden, mysterious death, to a younger princeling, provides a very apt analogy to that of Abigail.
Another article (by Daniel Bodi) compares David's way of seizing power to the pattern of seizing power in the ancient Near East: Zimri-Lim in Mari, Idrimi in Alalakh, and the 'Apiru in the Amarna texts serve as analogies to David.
The tale of David as an ambitious warlord taking power through marriage can be paralleled by the myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal; in its older Amarna version Nergal takes power through violence whereas in its Assyrian version his power is due to Ereshkigal's seduction and love. The Abigail story combines both aspects, beginning with violence and ending with marriage (Jean-Jacques Glassner).
Some rabbis saw Abigail as a seducer and a hellish type of woman. The final articles (by Bodi and Jean-Marie Husser) show that, while her behaviour might be ambiguous, she should not be branded a scarlet woman.
Abigail, Wife of David, and Other Ancient Oriental Women
£50.00
This is the first book devoted to the biblical figure of Abigail, whose encounter with David is narrated in 1 Samuel 25. An interdisciplinary study, its seven papers combine biblical criticism, narratology, history of religions, Assyriology and the study of midrash.
One article (by Michaël Guichard) brings to light a major historical analogy from the Mari documents to the triangular relationship of Abigail, Nabal and David. The career of the princess Inib-sharri, first married to an old sheikh, and, after his sudden, mysterious death, to a younger princeling, provides a very apt analogy to that of Abigail.
Another article (by Daniel Bodi) compares David's way of seizing power to the pattern of seizing power in the ancient Near East: Zimri-Lim in Mari, Idrimi in Alalakh, and the 'Apiru in the Amarna texts serve as analogies to David.
The tale of David as an ambitious warlord taking power through marriage can be paralleled by the myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal; in its older Amarna version Nergal takes power through violence whereas in its Assyrian version his power is due to Ereshkigal's seduction and love. The Abigail story combines both aspects, beginning with violence and ending with marriage (Jean-Jacques Glassner).
Some rabbis saw Abigail as a seducer and a hellish type of woman. The final articles (by Bodi and Jean-Marie Husser) show that, while her behaviour might be ambiguous, she should not be branded a scarlet woman.
Sight and Insight in Genesis: A Semantic Study
Published: Oct 2013
£60.00
Sight and Insight shows how prominent are terms from the semantic field of sight in the book of Genesis. They are constantly found in openings, at turning points, and as constituents in place-names and personal names. Because of their presence at strategic points in the plot of Genesis, words of sight enhance cohesion among the narratives of the book.
From the beginning of time, according to Genesis, there have been numerous instances of seeing on the part of both God and humans. But as Genesis progresses, God gradually becomes more hidden and his seeing gives place to human perception.
These observations are built upon a sound theoretical foundation, outlined in the opening chapter, which provides a clear definition of the concept of 'semantic field' and an explanation of related semantic terms such as 'frames' and 'prototypes'.
Subsequent chapters identify the words that can be assigned to the 'sight' field, examine the deployment of the sight field in individual narratives in Genesis, and study the sight field over larger sections of the book.
This is the sixth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
Sight and Insight in Genesis: A Semantic Study
£60.00
Sight and Insight shows how prominent are terms from the semantic field of sight in the book of Genesis. They are constantly found in openings, at turning points, and as constituents in place-names and personal names. Because of their presence at strategic points in the plot of Genesis, words of sight enhance cohesion among the narratives of the book.
From the beginning of time, according to Genesis, there have been numerous instances of seeing on the part of both God and humans. But as Genesis progresses, God gradually becomes more hidden and his seeing gives place to human perception.
These observations are built upon a sound theoretical foundation, outlined in the opening chapter, which provides a clear definition of the concept of 'semantic field' and an explanation of related semantic terms such as 'frames' and 'prototypes'.
Subsequent chapters identify the words that can be assigned to the 'sight' field, examine the deployment of the sight field in individual narratives in Genesis, and study the sight field over larger sections of the book.
This is the sixth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
Chorus in the Dark: The Voices of the Book of Lamentations
Published: Oct 2013
£60.00
Chorus in the Dark invites attention to the treaty negotiated by the voices of Lamentations. The issues of God's justice and human rights are at the centre of a forceful discussion embodied in the five poems of Lamentations. Difficult questions are subtly raised: How can God's justice be recognized and honoured in the midst of suffering? How can the human right to protest against mistreatment be respected? How can loss, grief, and shame be overcome? What future is there for the victims? How can these sensitive issues be negotiated without loss?
Zion is the first major speaker in Lamentations. Zion projects the voice of a woman crying by the grave. Her pain is intense, her loss is vast, her anger is uncontrollable. Zion is unable to see any future. God is indeed just in destroying her, but her surviving children do not deserve her fate.
The other major speaker is the man of Lamentations 3. He too speaks of the pain, grief, anger, and desire for vengeance of a victim bent under the yoke of affliction. Yet, like a Davidic king, he dares to claim covenant promises and hope that darkness will eventually turn to light.
Through both harmony and discord, and with a profound ambivalence toward the future, the separate voices of Lamentations resonate in a timbre that transcends the sum of its parts. The five poems, while having unique value individually, are meant to be read together as a living documentation of a moment of suspension, a great turning point in the history of Israel.
Chorus in the Dark: The Voices of the Book of Lamentations
£60.00
Chorus in the Dark invites attention to the treaty negotiated by the voices of Lamentations. The issues of God's justice and human rights are at the centre of a forceful discussion embodied in the five poems of Lamentations. Difficult questions are subtly raised: How can God's justice be recognized and honoured in the midst of suffering? How can the human right to protest against mistreatment be respected? How can loss, grief, and shame be overcome? What future is there for the victims? How can these sensitive issues be negotiated without loss?
Zion is the first major speaker in Lamentations. Zion projects the voice of a woman crying by the grave. Her pain is intense, her loss is vast, her anger is uncontrollable. Zion is unable to see any future. God is indeed just in destroying her, but her surviving children do not deserve her fate.
The other major speaker is the man of Lamentations 3. He too speaks of the pain, grief, anger, and desire for vengeance of a victim bent under the yoke of affliction. Yet, like a Davidic king, he dares to claim covenant promises and hope that darkness will eventually turn to light.
Through both harmony and discord, and with a profound ambivalence toward the future, the separate voices of Lamentations resonate in a timbre that transcends the sum of its parts. The five poems, while having unique value individually, are meant to be read together as a living documentation of a moment of suspension, a great turning point in the history of Israel.
‘Say You Are My Sister’: Danger, Seduction and the Foreign in Biblical Literature and Beyond
Published: Oct 2013
£50.00
Throughout biblical and Jewish literature we encounter a repeated story of a Hebrew or Jewish character who becomes involved in a dangerous erotic relationship. The sexual tension in these tales articulates the ambivalence between the national identities of the character and of the foreign other.
The first exemplification of the topos occurs in Genesis, where the matriarchs Sarah and Rebekah are handed over (or almost so) by their husbands to a foreign king. The other biblical cases are those of Joseph, who experiences the danger of seduction by Potiphar's wife, and Esther, who is taken by force into the harem of the Persian emperor.
In modern Hebrew literature, the theme reappears in the short story by the Nobel Prize winner S.Y. Agnon, 'The Lady and the Pedlar' from 1943, in which the Jewish pedlar is at risk of becoming the prey of a foreign cannibalistic woman, and in the novel Inta Omri (1994) by the poet-author Smadar Herzfeld, which describes a desperate love affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man against the backdrop of the Intifada in the late 1980s.
Between the chapters devoted to these works lies a discussion of the film by the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, The Touch (1971), the story of a Jewish archaeologist who falls in love with a Swedish woman, which Keshet reads as another instance of the same theme, but this time as a metaphor of Jewish —Christian relations from the perspective not of the Jewish character but of the foreign other.
‘Say You Are My Sister’: Danger, Seduction and the Foreign in Biblical Literature and Beyond
£50.00
Throughout biblical and Jewish literature we encounter a repeated story of a Hebrew or Jewish character who becomes involved in a dangerous erotic relationship. The sexual tension in these tales articulates the ambivalence between the national identities of the character and of the foreign other.
The first exemplification of the topos occurs in Genesis, where the matriarchs Sarah and Rebekah are handed over (or almost so) by their husbands to a foreign king. The other biblical cases are those of Joseph, who experiences the danger of seduction by Potiphar's wife, and Esther, who is taken by force into the harem of the Persian emperor.
In modern Hebrew literature, the theme reappears in the short story by the Nobel Prize winner S.Y. Agnon, 'The Lady and the Pedlar' from 1943, in which the Jewish pedlar is at risk of becoming the prey of a foreign cannibalistic woman, and in the novel Inta Omri (1994) by the poet-author Smadar Herzfeld, which describes a desperate love affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man against the backdrop of the Intifada in the late 1980s.
Between the chapters devoted to these works lies a discussion of the film by the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, The Touch (1971), the story of a Jewish archaeologist who falls in love with a Swedish woman, which Keshet reads as another instance of the same theme, but this time as a metaphor of Jewish —Christian relations from the perspective not of the Jewish character but of the foreign other.
Where the Wild Ox Roams: Biblical Essays in Honour of Norman C. Habel
Published: Sep 2013
£75.00
Norman C. Habel, the most eminent Hebrew Bible scholar of our time in Australia, has claimed a special place in biblical hermeneutics through his untiring work in the last two decades to foreground environmental issues as the critical lens through which the Bible must be read, judged and interpreted.
This centre of his most recent work has built on a long career of creative engagement with the biblical text, creativity that has witnessed not only major contributions in Hebrew Bible scholarship (most especially on Job and ideologies of 'the land') but in drama, poetry, liturgy, puppetry and music. Norm Habel has demonstrated the possibility of the academic being an activist and the activist being a scholar, all the while encouraging emerging and established scholarship to see further into the text and through the text to the justice demanding to be established in the world.
Seventeen friends have joined to honour the man and esteem, through this collection of essays, some of the illustrious facets of his prodigious output — on Job (Mark Brett, David Clines), ecological hermeneutics (Elaine Wainwright, Vicky Balabanski, Alan Cadwallader, Alice Sinnott, Dianne Bergant, Anne Elvey, Philip Davies), the arts (William Urbrock, Carol Newsom), and issues in personal encounters (Martin Buss, Marie Turner, Robert Crotty, Terence Fretheim, Ralph Klein, Gary Stansell).
Where the Wild Ox Roams: Biblical Essays in Honour of Norman C. Habel
£75.00
Norman C. Habel, the most eminent Hebrew Bible scholar of our time in Australia, has claimed a special place in biblical hermeneutics through his untiring work in the last two decades to foreground environmental issues as the critical lens through which the Bible must be read, judged and interpreted.
This centre of his most recent work has built on a long career of creative engagement with the biblical text, creativity that has witnessed not only major contributions in Hebrew Bible scholarship (most especially on Job and ideologies of 'the land') but in drama, poetry, liturgy, puppetry and music. Norm Habel has demonstrated the possibility of the academic being an activist and the activist being a scholar, all the while encouraging emerging and established scholarship to see further into the text and through the text to the justice demanding to be established in the world.
Seventeen friends have joined to honour the man and esteem, through this collection of essays, some of the illustrious facets of his prodigious output — on Job (Mark Brett, David Clines), ecological hermeneutics (Elaine Wainwright, Vicky Balabanski, Alan Cadwallader, Alice Sinnott, Dianne Bergant, Anne Elvey, Philip Davies), the arts (William Urbrock, Carol Newsom), and issues in personal encounters (Martin Buss, Marie Turner, Robert Crotty, Terence Fretheim, Ralph Klein, Gary Stansell).
Toward Understanding the Hebrew Canon: A Form-Critical Approach
Published: Sep 2013
£50.00
Toward Understanding the Hebrew Canon: A Form-Critical Approach explores in an original and reflective way the relations between the linguistic forms, ideas and life involvements of biblical genres. The various forms of the Hebrew Bible reflect and correspond to the richly diverse life experiences of the Hebrew people, which include varied legal, cultic and erotic interactions.
Divine speech is a prominent literary form in the Hebrew Bible, according to Buss's analysis. It has an emotive character, and is highly personal. Such speech establishes a series of Origin events that run from creation to the foundation of kingship; it both provides norms for life and struggles with human recalcitrance. Divine speech also provides evaluative assessments of present and envisaged situations, and it promises a truly good End. The humans to whom divine speech is directed are called on to acknowledge the divine reality, which they can do through self-transcendence, as a part of selfhood. In ethics, a receptive attitude acknowledges the unconditional worth of others, which is supported by Deity.
Human speech is usually also emotive, although on occasion it is concerned rather with dry historical actualities. It is intertwined with divine speech in narratives and prophecies.
In these fourteen essays (one of them previously unpublished) the renowned biblical scholar Martin Buss gathers an array of his work from many years, bringing to bear on the Hebrew Bible his extensive researches in cross-cultural data and in other disciplines such as philosophy and social psychology.
Toward Understanding the Hebrew Canon: A Form-Critical Approach
£50.00
Toward Understanding the Hebrew Canon: A Form-Critical Approach explores in an original and reflective way the relations between the linguistic forms, ideas and life involvements of biblical genres. The various forms of the Hebrew Bible reflect and correspond to the richly diverse life experiences of the Hebrew people, which include varied legal, cultic and erotic interactions.
Divine speech is a prominent literary form in the Hebrew Bible, according to Buss's analysis. It has an emotive character, and is highly personal. Such speech establishes a series of Origin events that run from creation to the foundation of kingship; it both provides norms for life and struggles with human recalcitrance. Divine speech also provides evaluative assessments of present and envisaged situations, and it promises a truly good End. The humans to whom divine speech is directed are called on to acknowledge the divine reality, which they can do through self-transcendence, as a part of selfhood. In ethics, a receptive attitude acknowledges the unconditional worth of others, which is supported by Deity.
Human speech is usually also emotive, although on occasion it is concerned rather with dry historical actualities. It is intertwined with divine speech in narratives and prophecies.
In these fourteen essays (one of them previously unpublished) the renowned biblical scholar Martin Buss gathers an array of his work from many years, bringing to bear on the Hebrew Bible his extensive researches in cross-cultural data and in other disciplines such as philosophy and social psychology.
The Necessary King: A Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic Portrait of the Monarchy
Published: Sep 2013
£80.00
The Necessary King explains why Israel needed a king according to the Deuteronomistic History, and why its exilic readers can expect no future except under Davidic rule. Given Israel's tendency to rebellion against its divine suzerain, the king is the necessary agent of God's colonization of Israel, making and keeping it a loyal subject.
The Deuteronomistic History with its pro-Davidic narrative has three prongs, each of which relies on an imitation of the imperial ideology of Judah's colonial masters. First, Dtr imitates the discourse of Neo-Assyrian treaties and Mesopotamian royal inscriptions, replacing the imperial suzerain with God.
Second, having established this client —suzerain relationship in Deuteronomy, Dtr then goes on to imitate imperial portrayals of the disloyal and wicked foreign enemies whom the Mesopotamian king colonizes. Israel is a foreign enemy in God's eyes, repetitively proving their disloyalty to their divine suzerain and so demonstrating the need for an Israelite king who will colonize them —for their own good.
Third, Dtr imitates the ideology of the Mesopotamian powers in its portrayal of the monarchy. Dtr presents the Davidides' relation to Judah/Israel just as the Mesopotamian colonial powers present their kings' relation to the foreign peoples they have conquered: their colonial rule is necessary, and actually benefits the peoples whom they colonize.
Disqualifying prophets, priests, and judges as potential leaders of Israel, and presenting the people as far too sinful to live without leadership, the Deuteronomistic History portrays the Davidic monarchy as a necessity.
The Necessary King: A Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic Portrait of the Monarchy
£80.00
The Necessary King explains why Israel needed a king according to the Deuteronomistic History, and why its exilic readers can expect no future except under Davidic rule. Given Israel's tendency to rebellion against its divine suzerain, the king is the necessary agent of God's colonization of Israel, making and keeping it a loyal subject.
The Deuteronomistic History with its pro-Davidic narrative has three prongs, each of which relies on an imitation of the imperial ideology of Judah's colonial masters. First, Dtr imitates the discourse of Neo-Assyrian treaties and Mesopotamian royal inscriptions, replacing the imperial suzerain with God.
Second, having established this client —suzerain relationship in Deuteronomy, Dtr then goes on to imitate imperial portrayals of the disloyal and wicked foreign enemies whom the Mesopotamian king colonizes. Israel is a foreign enemy in God's eyes, repetitively proving their disloyalty to their divine suzerain and so demonstrating the need for an Israelite king who will colonize them —for their own good.
Third, Dtr imitates the ideology of the Mesopotamian powers in its portrayal of the monarchy. Dtr presents the Davidides' relation to Judah/Israel just as the Mesopotamian colonial powers present their kings' relation to the foreign peoples they have conquered: their colonial rule is necessary, and actually benefits the peoples whom they colonize.
Disqualifying prophets, priests, and judges as potential leaders of Israel, and presenting the people as far too sinful to live without leadership, the Deuteronomistic History portrays the Davidic monarchy as a necessity.
The Politics of Israel’s Past: The Bible, Archaeology and Nation-Building
Published: July 2013
£60.00
It is not uncommon that historical images —presented as simply given, self-evident and even indisputable —are employed in political readings of the past and used as a legitimizing tool. For that reason, the authors of this volume, biblical scholars, archaeologists, anthropologists and historians, undertake a deconstruction of modern biblical discourses on the Bible's production and the history of ancient Israel, enabling the exploration of critical approaches to ancient Palestine's past, to the history of the peoples of the region, to the history of the biblical text(s) and, last but not least, to the modern political uses of biblical narratives as legitimizing land ownership and nationalisms.
Among the topics treated are the appearance of Judaism and its connection to the production of biblical literature, the politics of archaeological practice in Israel, the role of archaeology in the production of nationalist narratives of the past, the relationship between genetic studies and Jewish nationalism, and the prospects for writing critical histories of ancient Palestine beyond biblical images and religious and political aspirations.
Each article illustrates the close relationship between the Bible, archaeology and processes of nation-building in the State of Israel. The Politics of Israel's Past concerns itself both with the ways in which contemporary politics affects the knowledge of the past and with the processes by which constructions of an ancient past legitimate modern political situations.
The Politics of Israel’s Past: The Bible, Archaeology and Nation-Building
£60.00
It is not uncommon that historical images —presented as simply given, self-evident and even indisputable —are employed in political readings of the past and used as a legitimizing tool. For that reason, the authors of this volume, biblical scholars, archaeologists, anthropologists and historians, undertake a deconstruction of modern biblical discourses on the Bible's production and the history of ancient Israel, enabling the exploration of critical approaches to ancient Palestine's past, to the history of the peoples of the region, to the history of the biblical text(s) and, last but not least, to the modern political uses of biblical narratives as legitimizing land ownership and nationalisms.
Among the topics treated are the appearance of Judaism and its connection to the production of biblical literature, the politics of archaeological practice in Israel, the role of archaeology in the production of nationalist narratives of the past, the relationship between genetic studies and Jewish nationalism, and the prospects for writing critical histories of ancient Palestine beyond biblical images and religious and political aspirations.
Each article illustrates the close relationship between the Bible, archaeology and processes of nation-building in the State of Israel. The Politics of Israel's Past concerns itself both with the ways in which contemporary politics affects the knowledge of the past and with the processes by which constructions of an ancient past legitimate modern political situations.
The Reception of the Hebrew Bible in the Septuagint and the New Testament: Essays in Memory of Aileen Guilding
Published: July 2013
£50.00
Aileen Guilding was Professor of Biblical History and Literature in the University of Sheffield from 1959 to 1965, and was known especially for her monograph The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship: A Study of the Relation of St. John's Gospel to the Ancient Jewish Lectionary System (Oxford, 1960), which enjoyed a succès d’estime in its day as an exceptionally fascinating and learned book. She is celebrated in Sheffield as the first female professor in the University; she was also the first woman to hold a chair in theology or religion in the United Kingdom. After her death at the age of 94 a conference on themes relevant to her special interests was held in Sheffield as part of a meeting of the Society for Old Testament Study, and the papers read there are presented in this volume, published in the 101st year after her birth.
The Reception of the Hebrew Bible in the Septuagint and the New Testament: Essays in Memory of Aileen Guilding
£50.00
Aileen Guilding was Professor of Biblical History and Literature in the University of Sheffield from 1959 to 1965, and was known especially for her monograph The Fourth Gospel and Jewish Worship: A Study of the Relation of St. John's Gospel to the Ancient Jewish Lectionary System (Oxford, 1960), which enjoyed a succès d’estime in its day as an exceptionally fascinating and learned book. She is celebrated in Sheffield as the first female professor in the University; she was also the first woman to hold a chair in theology or religion in the United Kingdom. After her death at the age of 94 a conference on themes relevant to her special interests was held in Sheffield as part of a meeting of the Society for Old Testament Study, and the papers read there are presented in this volume, published in the 101st year after her birth.
The Joseph of Genesis as Hellenistic Scientist
Published: July 2013
£75.00
To today's confrontations between religion and science Jovanovic contrasts the vibrant collaboration that characterizes Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beginnings. Designation of the patriarch Joseph as both a dream interpreter and a diviner (Gen. 44.4, 15) is a specific example of biblical appropriation of the ancient Mediterranean understanding of cup divination and dream interpretation as among the scientific activities of its social, spiritual and academic elite.
Jovanovic argues that the image of Joseph as a Hellenistic scientist nourished the popularity of early Jewish and Christian literature on Joseph. The works of Josephus and Philo, Rabbinic midrashim, and the newly discovered The Ethiopic Story of Joseph, as well as Jubilees, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and Joseph and Aseneth, hold that Joseph's profession was that of a scientist of vision. The interpretation of the symbolic images in dreams and cup divination was a scientific method of communication with the divine and of prediction of the future, which Jovanovic calls 'revelation by visual effects'.
Joseph's image as an Egyptian academic provoked varied responses in Hellenistic Jewish circles. The dismay expressed by Jubilees and Philo arose from Joseph's perceived betrayal of religious and traditional values. The acclamation of Josephus and The Ethiopic Story of Joseph demonstrates that a number of Hellenistic Jews believed that their creative integration into the vibrant Hellenistic culture could be successful and deepen their own Jewish identity.
While previous scholarship has focused on representations of Joseph either as an ethical model or as a type of Christ, this is the first major work that explores the image of Joseph as an ancient scholar and spiritual expert.
The Joseph of Genesis as Hellenistic Scientist
£75.00
To today's confrontations between religion and science Jovanovic contrasts the vibrant collaboration that characterizes Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beginnings. Designation of the patriarch Joseph as both a dream interpreter and a diviner (Gen. 44.4, 15) is a specific example of biblical appropriation of the ancient Mediterranean understanding of cup divination and dream interpretation as among the scientific activities of its social, spiritual and academic elite.
Jovanovic argues that the image of Joseph as a Hellenistic scientist nourished the popularity of early Jewish and Christian literature on Joseph. The works of Josephus and Philo, Rabbinic midrashim, and the newly discovered The Ethiopic Story of Joseph, as well as Jubilees, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and Joseph and Aseneth, hold that Joseph's profession was that of a scientist of vision. The interpretation of the symbolic images in dreams and cup divination was a scientific method of communication with the divine and of prediction of the future, which Jovanovic calls 'revelation by visual effects'.
Joseph's image as an Egyptian academic provoked varied responses in Hellenistic Jewish circles. The dismay expressed by Jubilees and Philo arose from Joseph's perceived betrayal of religious and traditional values. The acclamation of Josephus and The Ethiopic Story of Joseph demonstrates that a number of Hellenistic Jews believed that their creative integration into the vibrant Hellenistic culture could be successful and deepen their own Jewish identity.
While previous scholarship has focused on representations of Joseph either as an ethical model or as a type of Christ, this is the first major work that explores the image of Joseph as an ancient scholar and spiritual expert.
Now My Eye Sees You: Unveiling an Apocalyptic Job
Published: May 2013
£16.50 – £50.00
This groundbreaking study on the book of Job is the first systematic effort to reveal and organize its apocalyptic impulses. Drawing on such scholars as John Collins, Christopher Rowland and Frank Moore Cross, Johnson argues that interpreting Job through the lens of apocalypse yields a coherent reading that is able to incorporate all of the seemingly disparate literary features of the book that historically stymie interpreters.
An apocalyptic reading of Job begins with the presence of three important revelations: Eliphaz's vision, the hymn to wisdom and the Yahweh speeches. A literary division following these revelations contributes to the book's overall emphasis, which is to persevere in the midst of suffering. Thorny questions such as the reason Elihu was not rebuked by God in the epilogue receive fresh treatment from an apocalyptic paradigm.
In tracing the history of the interpretation of Job, Johnson offers evidence that both Jewish and Christian traditions recognized many of these 'apocalyptic' elements. For example, the LXX version of Job contains a resurrection plus in the epilogue, the Testament of Job emphasizes the influence of Satan, the Qumran sect may have drawn strength from the book's message to persevere, and the 'apocalyptic' passage of James upholds Job as a model for perseverance.
Viewing Job as a nascent form of apocalypse may also resuscitate Von Rad's hypothesis that apocalypse grew out of wisdom categories over against the more commonly accepted prophetic works.
Students of Job at all levels are treated here to a stimulating appraisal that will open their eyes to the apocalyptic characteristics woven throughout this diverse book. This monograph will make important contributions to genre studies, the history of interpretation and be valuable to those interested in the intersection of wisdom and apocalypse.
Now My Eye Sees You: Unveiling an Apocalyptic Job
£16.50 – £50.00
This groundbreaking study on the book of Job is the first systematic effort to reveal and organize its apocalyptic impulses. Drawing on such scholars as John Collins, Christopher Rowland and Frank Moore Cross, Johnson argues that interpreting Job through the lens of apocalypse yields a coherent reading that is able to incorporate all of the seemingly disparate literary features of the book that historically stymie interpreters.
An apocalyptic reading of Job begins with the presence of three important revelations: Eliphaz's vision, the hymn to wisdom and the Yahweh speeches. A literary division following these revelations contributes to the book's overall emphasis, which is to persevere in the midst of suffering. Thorny questions such as the reason Elihu was not rebuked by God in the epilogue receive fresh treatment from an apocalyptic paradigm.
In tracing the history of the interpretation of Job, Johnson offers evidence that both Jewish and Christian traditions recognized many of these 'apocalyptic' elements. For example, the LXX version of Job contains a resurrection plus in the epilogue, the Testament of Job emphasizes the influence of Satan, the Qumran sect may have drawn strength from the book's message to persevere, and the 'apocalyptic' passage of James upholds Job as a model for perseverance.
Viewing Job as a nascent form of apocalypse may also resuscitate Von Rad's hypothesis that apocalypse grew out of wisdom categories over against the more commonly accepted prophetic works.
Students of Job at all levels are treated here to a stimulating appraisal that will open their eyes to the apocalyptic characteristics woven throughout this diverse book. This monograph will make important contributions to genre studies, the history of interpretation and be valuable to those interested in the intersection of wisdom and apocalypse.
Jesus and the People of God: Reconfiguring Ethnic Identity
Published: May 2013
£19.50 – £50.00
How did the Jesus movement —a messianic sectarian version of Palestinian Judaism —transcend its Judaean origins and ultimately establish itself in the Roman East as the multi-ethnic socio-religious experiment we know as early Christianity?
In this major work, Hellerman, drawing upon his background as a social historian, proposes that a clue to the success of the Christian movement lay in Jesus' own conception of the people of God, and in how he reconfigured its identity from that of ethnos to that of family.
Pointing first to Jesus' critique of sabbath-keeping, the Jerusalem temple, and Jewish dietary laws —practices central to the preservation of Judaean social identity —he argues that Jesus' intention was to destabilize the idea of God's people as a localized ethnos. In its place he conceived the social identity of the people of God as a surrogate family or kinship group, a social entity based not on common ancestry but on a shared commitment to his kingdom programme.
Jesus of Nazareth thus functioned as a kind of ethnic entrepreneur, breaking down the boundaries of ethnic Judaism and providing an ideological foundation and symbolic framework for the wider expansion of the Jesus movement.
Jesus and the People of God: Reconfiguring Ethnic Identity
£19.50 – £50.00
How did the Jesus movement —a messianic sectarian version of Palestinian Judaism —transcend its Judaean origins and ultimately establish itself in the Roman East as the multi-ethnic socio-religious experiment we know as early Christianity?
In this major work, Hellerman, drawing upon his background as a social historian, proposes that a clue to the success of the Christian movement lay in Jesus' own conception of the people of God, and in how he reconfigured its identity from that of ethnos to that of family.
Pointing first to Jesus' critique of sabbath-keeping, the Jerusalem temple, and Jewish dietary laws —practices central to the preservation of Judaean social identity —he argues that Jesus' intention was to destabilize the idea of God's people as a localized ethnos. In its place he conceived the social identity of the people of God as a surrogate family or kinship group, a social entity based not on common ancestry but on a shared commitment to his kingdom programme.
Jesus of Nazareth thus functioned as a kind of ethnic entrepreneur, breaking down the boundaries of ethnic Judaism and providing an ideological foundation and symbolic framework for the wider expansion of the Jesus movement.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume VIII Sin-Taw
Published: Dec 2012
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume VIII Sin-Taw
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
Admen and Eve: The Bible in Contemporary Advertising
Published: Nov 2012
£50.00
This remarkable new book, the first of its kind, is an analysis of a phenomenon that biblical scholars have scarcely taken notice of, much less studied critically —the use of the Bible in advertising. Focussing on the figure of Eve, Admen and Eve shows how she has become the ultimate postfeminist icon of female sexual and consumer power, promoting self-regarding individual choice over collective political action for today's 'I'm not a feminist but ...' generation.
Contemporary advertising, Edwards shows, deploys a collage of images simultaneously reflecting and dictating the ideals and ideologies that inform much of Western culture. Exploiting the cultural mythology that surrounds Eve, advertisers constantly recycle images of this biblical figure because she is easily recognizable by the target consumer. In so doing, they are shaping how women and men see each other and themselves and how they treat each other and themselves, persuading them to become their culturally dictated dream through the products they consume.
Eve in advertising is then a revealing example of how the Bible functions today. But Admen and Eve is not a value-free and apolitical analysis; it is an incitement to the exposure and subversion of today's dominant cultural attitudes to gender roles.
Admen and Eve: The Bible in Contemporary Advertising
£50.00
This remarkable new book, the first of its kind, is an analysis of a phenomenon that biblical scholars have scarcely taken notice of, much less studied critically —the use of the Bible in advertising. Focussing on the figure of Eve, Admen and Eve shows how she has become the ultimate postfeminist icon of female sexual and consumer power, promoting self-regarding individual choice over collective political action for today's 'I'm not a feminist but ...' generation.
Contemporary advertising, Edwards shows, deploys a collage of images simultaneously reflecting and dictating the ideals and ideologies that inform much of Western culture. Exploiting the cultural mythology that surrounds Eve, advertisers constantly recycle images of this biblical figure because she is easily recognizable by the target consumer. In so doing, they are shaping how women and men see each other and themselves and how they treat each other and themselves, persuading them to become their culturally dictated dream through the products they consume.
Eve in advertising is then a revealing example of how the Bible functions today. But Admen and Eve is not a value-free and apolitical analysis; it is an incitement to the exposure and subversion of today's dominant cultural attitudes to gender roles.
The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form
Published: Oct 2012
£80.00
Study of the book of Isaiah has in recent times been strongly marked by a tension between synchronic and diachronic approaches. The first is favoured mainly by English-speaking, the second by German-speaking scholars. Berges's book attempts to mediate between the two poles, arguing that the final form analysis and the tracing of the development of that form are deeply interdependent.
This new research paradigm is applied here to the entire text of the book of Isaiah. Berges works consistently from the synchronic to the diachronic and back again to the evolved synchronous final form. Features that have been repeatedly observed —the cross-connections, key word associations, resumption of themes, and especially the bracketing of the book by chaps. 1 and 66 —are traces of a deliberate interweaving of various small compositions as well as of larger literary redactions.
The paradigm most suited to the book of Isaiah in all its complexity is not that of one comprehensive overall structure or final redaction, but that of smaller compositions that build on one another, come into conversation with one another, and, each in its own way, bring into play specific contemporary problems. We should not force a common thematic denominator on the book, but it becomes clear that Jerusalem and Zion belong to the basic tenor of the book of Isaiah as it was developed and refashioned through the centuries.
The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form is translated by Millard C. Lind from its German original, Das Buch Jesaja: Komposition und Endgestalt (Freiburg: Herder, 1998).
The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form
£80.00
Study of the book of Isaiah has in recent times been strongly marked by a tension between synchronic and diachronic approaches. The first is favoured mainly by English-speaking, the second by German-speaking scholars. Berges's book attempts to mediate between the two poles, arguing that the final form analysis and the tracing of the development of that form are deeply interdependent.
This new research paradigm is applied here to the entire text of the book of Isaiah. Berges works consistently from the synchronic to the diachronic and back again to the evolved synchronous final form. Features that have been repeatedly observed —the cross-connections, key word associations, resumption of themes, and especially the bracketing of the book by chaps. 1 and 66 —are traces of a deliberate interweaving of various small compositions as well as of larger literary redactions.
The paradigm most suited to the book of Isaiah in all its complexity is not that of one comprehensive overall structure or final redaction, but that of smaller compositions that build on one another, come into conversation with one another, and, each in its own way, bring into play specific contemporary problems. We should not force a common thematic denominator on the book, but it becomes clear that Jerusalem and Zion belong to the basic tenor of the book of Isaiah as it was developed and refashioned through the centuries.
The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form is translated by Millard C. Lind from its German original, Das Buch Jesaja: Komposition und Endgestalt (Freiburg: Herder, 1998).
Words, Ideas, Worlds: Biblical Essays in Honour of Yairah Amit
Published: Aug 2012
£75.00
This volume brings together fourteen essays by Israeli, European and American scholars honouring the distinct contribution of Yairah Amit to the literary study of the Hebrew Bible and to her public role, fostering especially the place of the Hebrew Bible in Israeli education. In biblical studies she has made significant contributions to the study of redactional and editorial activity, which she has always viewed from a rhetorical and literary point of view. These aspects were uniquely developed in her work on the books of Judges and Chronicles, in which literary considerations always lead to the recognition of the ideology behind the redactor’s work. Another key theme of hers has been overt and hidden polemics expressed or suggested by the narrative text.
The studies assembled in the present volume deal with the many aspects of Amit’s work, from the biblical and post-biblical down to the mediaeval and the modern period. Central fields are the art of the redactor and inner-biblical polemics (Diana Edelman, Cynthia Edenburg, Nadav Na’aman, Meira Polliack, Dalit Rom-Shiloni), literary scrutiny (Ed Greenstein, Lillian Klein Abensohn, Frank Polak), ideology in social and religious contexts (Ehud Ben Zvi, Israel Knohl), and feminist and cultural studies in a wider sense (Athalya Brenner, Cheryl Exum, Yael Feldman, Shulamit Valler).
This is the fifth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
Words, Ideas, Worlds: Biblical Essays in Honour of Yairah Amit
£75.00
This volume brings together fourteen essays by Israeli, European and American scholars honouring the distinct contribution of Yairah Amit to the literary study of the Hebrew Bible and to her public role, fostering especially the place of the Hebrew Bible in Israeli education. In biblical studies she has made significant contributions to the study of redactional and editorial activity, which she has always viewed from a rhetorical and literary point of view. These aspects were uniquely developed in her work on the books of Judges and Chronicles, in which literary considerations always lead to the recognition of the ideology behind the redactor’s work. Another key theme of hers has been overt and hidden polemics expressed or suggested by the narrative text.
The studies assembled in the present volume deal with the many aspects of Amit’s work, from the biblical and post-biblical down to the mediaeval and the modern period. Central fields are the art of the redactor and inner-biblical polemics (Diana Edelman, Cynthia Edenburg, Nadav Na’aman, Meira Polliack, Dalit Rom-Shiloni), literary scrutiny (Ed Greenstein, Lillian Klein Abensohn, Frank Polak), ideology in social and religious contexts (Ehud Ben Zvi, Israel Knohl), and feminist and cultural studies in a wider sense (Athalya Brenner, Cheryl Exum, Yael Feldman, Shulamit Valler).
This is the fifth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
The Book of Job in Post-Holocaust Thought
Published: Aug 2012
£40.00
The story of Job's suffering has often been appealed to by those responding to the Holocaust. This book explores a rich variety of such receptions of the Book of Job, highlighting the need to appreciate the tensions present in both the biblical text of Job and in perceptions of the Holocaust's meaning. Attention is given to the often creative modes of reading used by those appealing to Job, and the presence of complex interactions between theology, textual interpretation, and historical analysis. Receptions of Job examined include those presented by key post-Holocaust thinkers such as Emil Fackenheim, Elie Wiesel and Richard Rubenstein.
Bringing together elements of biblical studies and Holocaust studies, David Tollerton shows that Job has been harnessed for an array of purposes, from asserting the continuity of Jewish faith amid the traumas of twentieth-century history, to resisting the idea that there can be any decisive religious 'answer' to the Holocaust. Despite the diversity of ways in which Job has been cited, it is shown that such reception is nonetheless controversial, doubts being repeatedly raised whether Job is appropriate to the Holocaust context. While ultimately proposing that Job does indeed have a valuable role to play, The Book of Job in Post-Holocaust Thought argues that in some cases such doubts are in order, and that some receptions should be queried on textual, historical or ethical grounds.
This book will be of interest to readers concerned with the modern reception of wisdom literature, theological responses to the Holocaust, or simply the manner in which the Bible has been used by communities attempting to make sense of modernity's darkest aspects.
The Book of Job in Post-Holocaust Thought
£40.00
The story of Job's suffering has often been appealed to by those responding to the Holocaust. This book explores a rich variety of such receptions of the Book of Job, highlighting the need to appreciate the tensions present in both the biblical text of Job and in perceptions of the Holocaust's meaning. Attention is given to the often creative modes of reading used by those appealing to Job, and the presence of complex interactions between theology, textual interpretation, and historical analysis. Receptions of Job examined include those presented by key post-Holocaust thinkers such as Emil Fackenheim, Elie Wiesel and Richard Rubenstein.
Bringing together elements of biblical studies and Holocaust studies, David Tollerton shows that Job has been harnessed for an array of purposes, from asserting the continuity of Jewish faith amid the traumas of twentieth-century history, to resisting the idea that there can be any decisive religious 'answer' to the Holocaust. Despite the diversity of ways in which Job has been cited, it is shown that such reception is nonetheless controversial, doubts being repeatedly raised whether Job is appropriate to the Holocaust context. While ultimately proposing that Job does indeed have a valuable role to play, The Book of Job in Post-Holocaust Thought argues that in some cases such doubts are in order, and that some receptions should be queried on textual, historical or ethical grounds.
This book will be of interest to readers concerned with the modern reception of wisdom literature, theological responses to the Holocaust, or simply the manner in which the Bible has been used by communities attempting to make sense of modernity's darkest aspects.
Isaiah: The Prophet and His Book
Published: July 2012
£21.00
The book of Isaiah presents one of the most challenging pieces of literature in the Hebrew Bible. Over a period of some four hundred years (from the end of the eighth century down to the end of the fourth century BCE), the great prophet Isaiah and his disciples in the Assyrian period, as well as later scholars in Babylonian and Persian times, worked on this marvellous prophetic text. In its final form it resembles a mediaeval cathedral constructed by many gifted people across the centuries. Each piece has its own history, place and function in the whole structure.
In this lucid study, Berges interprets the scroll of Isaiah as a 'literal cathedral', written by many hands and empowered by the experience of sorrow and disaster, liberation and joy. In the centre of the book (Isaiah 36 —39) and of its theology stands the threat and redemption of Zion. The nations that in the first part were taking action against God's city are invited to join the exiled and dispersed people of Israel as it travels home. The reader too is called to journey the same path and to join the congregation of Israel and the nations on their way to the New Jerusalem — not in heaven but on a renewed earth.
Methodologically, the book combines synchronic and diachronic perspectives and paves the way to a fruitful conversation between them. The vast reception history of the Book of Isaiah in the Septuagint, the New Testament, and in rabbinic and Christian traditions, as well as in painting and music, is also illustrated by some of the most illuminating examples.
Isaiah: The Prophet and His Book
£21.00
The book of Isaiah presents one of the most challenging pieces of literature in the Hebrew Bible. Over a period of some four hundred years (from the end of the eighth century down to the end of the fourth century BCE), the great prophet Isaiah and his disciples in the Assyrian period, as well as later scholars in Babylonian and Persian times, worked on this marvellous prophetic text. In its final form it resembles a mediaeval cathedral constructed by many gifted people across the centuries. Each piece has its own history, place and function in the whole structure.
In this lucid study, Berges interprets the scroll of Isaiah as a 'literal cathedral', written by many hands and empowered by the experience of sorrow and disaster, liberation and joy. In the centre of the book (Isaiah 36 —39) and of its theology stands the threat and redemption of Zion. The nations that in the first part were taking action against God's city are invited to join the exiled and dispersed people of Israel as it travels home. The reader too is called to journey the same path and to join the congregation of Israel and the nations on their way to the New Jerusalem — not in heaven but on a renewed earth.
Methodologically, the book combines synchronic and diachronic perspectives and paves the way to a fruitful conversation between them. The vast reception history of the Book of Isaiah in the Septuagint, the New Testament, and in rabbinic and Christian traditions, as well as in painting and music, is also illustrated by some of the most illuminating examples.
Out of Stock
In Praise of Editing in the Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays in Retrospect
Published: Jun 2012
£75.00
Yairah Amit is a leading Israeli scholar of the Hebrew Bible who has published some of her articles only in Hebrew. Most of them are here translated for the first time. As she compiled the volume, she discovered that this collection of 19 essays had a common denominator: they are all about the process of editing that has gone on in the creation of the Hebrew Bible, a process that Amit looks on with some favour. Hence her title, In Praise of Editing . The Bible, she argues, is a long carefully edited book, which means that it is not a chance agglomeration of materials bound together, but rather a complete and carefully selected library. Among the essays in this volume are: Who Decided to Open the Torah with the Creation of the Sabbath?, The Garden of Eden as Utopia, Repetition as Poetic Principle, Who Is Afraid of Multiple Voices?, Editorial Considerations Regarding Ending, Who Is Lent to the Lord? Ask the Editor, To Include or Not to Include? Editorial Considerations Regarding the Whole. What makes this volume unique among collections of essays is her decision to add a personal preface to each article, highlighting it from an additional subjective angle. Sometimes the preface reflects her relationship to the subject and its ideology, sometimes the circumstances in which the article was written or published. At other times, readers may learn about the teachers who guided her first steps in the field, and about her own relationship to various issues in biblical research. These prefaces, she believes, show the researcher not as a rigid professional, but as a more rounded human person. This is the fourth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
Out of Stock
In Praise of Editing in the Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays in Retrospect
£75.00
Yairah Amit is a leading Israeli scholar of the Hebrew Bible who has published some of her articles only in Hebrew. Most of them are here translated for the first time. As she compiled the volume, she discovered that this collection of 19 essays had a common denominator: they are all about the process of editing that has gone on in the creation of the Hebrew Bible, a process that Amit looks on with some favour. Hence her title, In Praise of Editing . The Bible, she argues, is a long carefully edited book, which means that it is not a chance agglomeration of materials bound together, but rather a complete and carefully selected library. Among the essays in this volume are: Who Decided to Open the Torah with the Creation of the Sabbath?, The Garden of Eden as Utopia, Repetition as Poetic Principle, Who Is Afraid of Multiple Voices?, Editorial Considerations Regarding Ending, Who Is Lent to the Lord? Ask the Editor, To Include or Not to Include? Editorial Considerations Regarding the Whole. What makes this volume unique among collections of essays is her decision to add a personal preface to each article, highlighting it from an additional subjective angle. Sometimes the preface reflects her relationship to the subject and its ideology, sometimes the circumstances in which the article was written or published. At other times, readers may learn about the teachers who guided her first steps in the field, and about her own relationship to various issues in biblical research. These prefaces, she believes, show the researcher not as a rigid professional, but as a more rounded human person. This is the fourth volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Modern World and Hebrew Bible Monographs.
Out of Stock
Three Old Testament Theologies for Today: Helge S. Kvanvig, Walter Brueggemann and Erhard Gerstenberger
Published: Jun 2012
£50.00
This book is a critical analysis and comparison of three Old Testament theologies, those by Helge S. Kvanvig, Historisk Bibel og bibelsk historie (1999), Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament (1997), and Erhard S. Gerstenberger, Theologies of the Old Testament (2002). Since Kvanvig's book is written in Norwegian, his book is not generally known among Old Testament scholars outside Scandinavia. The three volumes have different theological profiles. Kvanvig, unlike other Old Testament theologians, allows theology to develop from his analyses of the biblical narratives and the strategies available to readers. Gerstenberger presents Old Testament theology as a plurality of theologies, and his book is as much a history of Israelite religion and ancient Israel's social history as a theology proper. Brueggemann sees Old Testament theology within the framework of a virtual trial between Israel and Yahweh. All three books are to some degree postmodern in their approach to Old Testament theology, Gerstenberger to a lesser degree, Brueggemann to a greater degree. Hagelia argues that Kvanvig's book could with profit be read as a prolegomenon to Brueggemann's book, whereas Gerstenberger's book follows a different track. On the basis of these three eminent contributions, the author outlines a possible future for the business of writing Old Testament theologies, suggesting that future theologies will be much more in conversation with contemporary issues, ethical, political and social, than the traditional theologies of the past have been.
Out of Stock
Three Old Testament Theologies for Today: Helge S. Kvanvig, Walter Brueggemann and Erhard Gerstenberger
£50.00
This book is a critical analysis and comparison of three Old Testament theologies, those by Helge S. Kvanvig, Historisk Bibel og bibelsk historie (1999), Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament (1997), and Erhard S. Gerstenberger, Theologies of the Old Testament (2002). Since Kvanvig's book is written in Norwegian, his book is not generally known among Old Testament scholars outside Scandinavia. The three volumes have different theological profiles. Kvanvig, unlike other Old Testament theologians, allows theology to develop from his analyses of the biblical narratives and the strategies available to readers. Gerstenberger presents Old Testament theology as a plurality of theologies, and his book is as much a history of Israelite religion and ancient Israel's social history as a theology proper. Brueggemann sees Old Testament theology within the framework of a virtual trial between Israel and Yahweh. All three books are to some degree postmodern in their approach to Old Testament theology, Gerstenberger to a lesser degree, Brueggemann to a greater degree. Hagelia argues that Kvanvig's book could with profit be read as a prolegomenon to Brueggemann's book, whereas Gerstenberger's book follows a different track. On the basis of these three eminent contributions, the author outlines a possible future for the business of writing Old Testament theologies, suggesting that future theologies will be much more in conversation with contemporary issues, ethical, political and social, than the traditional theologies of the past have been.
A Critical Engagement: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honour of J. Cheryl Exum
Published: Nov 2011
£75.00
This volume honours the distinctive contribution to Hebrew Bible studies over four decades by Cheryl Exum, Professor Emerita of Biblical Studies in the University of Sheffield. Her special interests have lain, first, in the modern literary criticism of the Hebrew Bible, where her key work was Tragedy and Biblical Narrative: Arrows of the Almighty . A second area has been feminist criticism of the Hebrew Bible; here her notable contributions were Fragmented Women: Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives and Plotted, Shot, and Painted: Cultural Representations of Biblical Women . A more recent, and now almost favourite, theme is the Bible and cultural studies, especially the Bible and art. Key works here have been a series of edited volumes, such as Beyond the Biblical Horizon: The Bible and the Arts , and The Bible in Film / The Bible and Film . Her fourth area of continuing interest has been the Song of Songs, with many articles culminating in her perceptive commentary in the Old Testament Library series. In this rich volume, 25 of her friends and colleagues offer her papers on all these themes. Several are on or around the Song of Songs (Graeme Auld, Fiona Black, David Clines, Sara Japhet, Martti Nissinen, Yair Zakovitch), and topics of feminist interest (Yairah Amit, Athalya Brenner, Claudia Camp, Hugh Pyper, Jack Sasson). Cultural studies are represented by Alice Bach, Hans Barstad, Andrew Davies, David Gunn, Martin O'Kane, John Sawyer and Ellen van Wolde, and literary criticism by Michael Fox, Edwin Good, Norman Gottwald, Edward Greenstein, Francis Landy, Burke Long and Hugh Williamson.
A Critical Engagement: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honour of J. Cheryl Exum
£75.00
This volume honours the distinctive contribution to Hebrew Bible studies over four decades by Cheryl Exum, Professor Emerita of Biblical Studies in the University of Sheffield. Her special interests have lain, first, in the modern literary criticism of the Hebrew Bible, where her key work was Tragedy and Biblical Narrative: Arrows of the Almighty . A second area has been feminist criticism of the Hebrew Bible; here her notable contributions were Fragmented Women: Feminist (Sub)versions of Biblical Narratives and Plotted, Shot, and Painted: Cultural Representations of Biblical Women . A more recent, and now almost favourite, theme is the Bible and cultural studies, especially the Bible and art. Key works here have been a series of edited volumes, such as Beyond the Biblical Horizon: The Bible and the Arts , and The Bible in Film / The Bible and Film . Her fourth area of continuing interest has been the Song of Songs, with many articles culminating in her perceptive commentary in the Old Testament Library series. In this rich volume, 25 of her friends and colleagues offer her papers on all these themes. Several are on or around the Song of Songs (Graeme Auld, Fiona Black, David Clines, Sara Japhet, Martti Nissinen, Yair Zakovitch), and topics of feminist interest (Yairah Amit, Athalya Brenner, Claudia Camp, Hugh Pyper, Jack Sasson). Cultural studies are represented by Alice Bach, Hans Barstad, Andrew Davies, David Gunn, Martin O'Kane, John Sawyer and Ellen van Wolde, and literary criticism by Michael Fox, Edwin Good, Norman Gottwald, Edward Greenstein, Francis Landy, Burke Long and Hugh Williamson.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew: Volumes 1-9 paperback
Published: Nov 2011
£445.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include, as well as the biblical texts, Ben Sira, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrence of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited. Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The paperback edition contains exactly the same pages as the hardback, and is priced at less than half the hardback price.
Please use this page for ordering the complete set of 9 paperback vols., originally published between 1993 and 2016.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew: Volumes 1-9 paperback
£445.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include, as well as the biblical texts, Ben Sira, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrence of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited. Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The paperback edition contains exactly the same pages as the hardback, and is priced at less than half the hardback price.
Please use this page for ordering the complete set of 9 paperback vols., originally published between 1993 and 2016.
Emotions in Biblical Law: A Cognitive Science Approach
Published: Oct 2011
£50.00
This study pioneers the use of insights from cognitive sciences, such as evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and developmental psychology, as heuristic tools for interpreting ancient texts. The approach could be described as 'psycho-biological'. The focus is on emotions in the various Pentateuchal legal collections. Kazen discusses the role of disgust, empathy, fear, and a sense of justice, for particular moral and ritual issues: purity and holiness; humanitarian concern for vulnerable categories; ethnocentrism and xenophobia; divine punishment and demonic threat; revenge, compensation, and ransom (kofer), together with removal (kipper) rites.
The book consists of two main parts, framed by an introductory chapter and a concluding discussion. In the first part, Kazen explores cognitive foundations, including biological and neuroscientific underpinnings for basic affects, and the role of culture in shaping both conventional morality and ritual behaviour. Four particular emotions are then outlined. In the second part, these insights from cognitive science are applied in analyses of particular texts. After an overview of the Pentateuchal legal collections, each of the four emotions is dealt with in a separate chapter. Kazen constantly relates a cognitive science approach to more traditional source and redaction-critical analysis, regarding them as complementary.
As a result, the Pentateuchal legal collections are seen as emotional texts, expressing strong affects —which influences our understanding of the character of Israelite 'law'. Kazen suggests that interaction and conflict between various emotions can explain discrepancies and tensions between humanitarian concerns and ethnocentrism, and between empathy and justice. He also demonstrates that viewing emotions as common denominators contains a potential for solving some difficult and long-standing conundrums. He argues that a focus on the human embodied experience rather than on theological convictions and theoretical ideas may avoid some interpretative dead ends and open up new avenues for understanding ancient texts.
Emotions in Biblical Law: A Cognitive Science Approach
£50.00
This study pioneers the use of insights from cognitive sciences, such as evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and developmental psychology, as heuristic tools for interpreting ancient texts. The approach could be described as 'psycho-biological'. The focus is on emotions in the various Pentateuchal legal collections. Kazen discusses the role of disgust, empathy, fear, and a sense of justice, for particular moral and ritual issues: purity and holiness; humanitarian concern for vulnerable categories; ethnocentrism and xenophobia; divine punishment and demonic threat; revenge, compensation, and ransom (kofer), together with removal (kipper) rites.
The book consists of two main parts, framed by an introductory chapter and a concluding discussion. In the first part, Kazen explores cognitive foundations, including biological and neuroscientific underpinnings for basic affects, and the role of culture in shaping both conventional morality and ritual behaviour. Four particular emotions are then outlined. In the second part, these insights from cognitive science are applied in analyses of particular texts. After an overview of the Pentateuchal legal collections, each of the four emotions is dealt with in a separate chapter. Kazen constantly relates a cognitive science approach to more traditional source and redaction-critical analysis, regarding them as complementary.
As a result, the Pentateuchal legal collections are seen as emotional texts, expressing strong affects —which influences our understanding of the character of Israelite 'law'. Kazen suggests that interaction and conflict between various emotions can explain discrepancies and tensions between humanitarian concerns and ethnocentrism, and between empathy and justice. He also demonstrates that viewing emotions as common denominators contains a potential for solving some difficult and long-standing conundrums. He argues that a focus on the human embodied experience rather than on theological convictions and theoretical ideas may avoid some interpretative dead ends and open up new avenues for understanding ancient texts.
Textual Memory: Ancient Archives, Libraries and the Hebrew Bible
Published: Aug 2011
£65.00
In modern scholarship the Hebrew Bible represents a collection of books, perhaps even a library of books. Some think that it is a selection of ancient oral traditions that were eventually written down, edited and preserved. Others suggest that the biblical corpus resulted from a merging of regional libraries in ancient Palestine or was the outcome of the Hasmoneans' need to legitimize their rule by claiming ownership of a library of books originating in the Jerusalem temple. No matter how tantalizing these hypotheses are, the implications of a concrete understanding of the origins of the Bible as library or archive are not often fully appreciated by scholars.
Textual Memory explores how various disciplines, including Assyriology, biblical studies, archival science and library history, have made sense of the thousands of collections of clay tablets and ancient written material discovered over the past two hundred years in the Middle East. And it raises the question whether the great libraries of Ashurbanipal and Alexandria, among others, are able to suggest models of how the Hebrew Bible came into being. Can the temple libraries in Mesopotamia or Egypt offer us any clues about who decided what should be preserved and why? What have ancient archival practices of careful selection, conservation, classification and dissemination of information to contribute to our understanding of the creation of the Hebrew Bible?
Ultimately, this book is a historiographical synthesis of current scholarship on ancient Near Eastern archives and libraries from different disciplinary perspectives. Its purpose is to better understand how we should conceive of the Bible as religious tradition and literary heritage.
Textual Memory: Ancient Archives, Libraries and the Hebrew Bible
£65.00
In modern scholarship the Hebrew Bible represents a collection of books, perhaps even a library of books. Some think that it is a selection of ancient oral traditions that were eventually written down, edited and preserved. Others suggest that the biblical corpus resulted from a merging of regional libraries in ancient Palestine or was the outcome of the Hasmoneans' need to legitimize their rule by claiming ownership of a library of books originating in the Jerusalem temple. No matter how tantalizing these hypotheses are, the implications of a concrete understanding of the origins of the Bible as library or archive are not often fully appreciated by scholars.
Textual Memory explores how various disciplines, including Assyriology, biblical studies, archival science and library history, have made sense of the thousands of collections of clay tablets and ancient written material discovered over the past two hundred years in the Middle East. And it raises the question whether the great libraries of Ashurbanipal and Alexandria, among others, are able to suggest models of how the Hebrew Bible came into being. Can the temple libraries in Mesopotamia or Egypt offer us any clues about who decided what should be preserved and why? What have ancient archival practices of careful selection, conservation, classification and dissemination of information to contribute to our understanding of the creation of the Hebrew Bible?
Ultimately, this book is a historiographical synthesis of current scholarship on ancient Near Eastern archives and libraries from different disciplinary perspectives. Its purpose is to better understand how we should conceive of the Bible as religious tradition and literary heritage.
Sacred Texts and Sacred Meanings: Studies in Biblical Language and Literature
Published: Jun 2011
£75.00
John Sawyer has been known for over 40 years as one of the finest British biblical scholars, always alert to new perspectives in biblical criticism and a pioneer in fruitful applications of new, often interdisciplinary, research methods. He has been an inspiring teacher to generations of students in Glasgow (1964-65), Newcastle upon Tyne (1965-94), Lancaster (1994-2002) and Oxford (2005-2008). From the very beginning he saw the need to apply sound linguistic theory to the study of the Bible, with the fundamental insight that all texts can have, and very often have had, more than one meaning.
No one meaning can claim priority over the others, he argues. The 'original meaning', more or less convincingly reconstructed by modern scholarship, can claim chronological priority, but that is all. What the text has meant to its Jewish and Christian readers down the centuries should be as much the subject of scholarly attention as any 'original' meaning. This is the unifying strand in the whole of his work, from his groundbreaking Semantics in Biblical Research: New Methods of Defining Hebrew Words for Salvation (1972) and his From Moses to Patmos: New Perspectives in Old Testament Study (1977) to his fascinating The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of Christianity (1996) and his Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts (1999). Among his most recent major contributions in this area have been his co-editorship of the Blackwell Bible Commentary Series, his edited Blackwell Companion to the Bible and Culture (2006) and his own Concise Dictionary of the Bible and its Reception (2009).
In 2011 John Sawyer has been elected President of the Society for Old Testament Study, and to celebrate that appointment Sheffield Phoenix Press is honoured to present this representative selection of 46 of his papers, some previously unpublished and some originally published in rather obscure places.
Sacred Texts and Sacred Meanings: Studies in Biblical Language and Literature
£75.00
John Sawyer has been known for over 40 years as one of the finest British biblical scholars, always alert to new perspectives in biblical criticism and a pioneer in fruitful applications of new, often interdisciplinary, research methods. He has been an inspiring teacher to generations of students in Glasgow (1964-65), Newcastle upon Tyne (1965-94), Lancaster (1994-2002) and Oxford (2005-2008). From the very beginning he saw the need to apply sound linguistic theory to the study of the Bible, with the fundamental insight that all texts can have, and very often have had, more than one meaning.
No one meaning can claim priority over the others, he argues. The 'original meaning', more or less convincingly reconstructed by modern scholarship, can claim chronological priority, but that is all. What the text has meant to its Jewish and Christian readers down the centuries should be as much the subject of scholarly attention as any 'original' meaning. This is the unifying strand in the whole of his work, from his groundbreaking Semantics in Biblical Research: New Methods of Defining Hebrew Words for Salvation (1972) and his From Moses to Patmos: New Perspectives in Old Testament Study (1977) to his fascinating The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of Christianity (1996) and his Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts (1999). Among his most recent major contributions in this area have been his co-editorship of the Blackwell Bible Commentary Series, his edited Blackwell Companion to the Bible and Culture (2006) and his own Concise Dictionary of the Bible and its Reception (2009).
In 2011 John Sawyer has been elected President of the Society for Old Testament Study, and to celebrate that appointment Sheffield Phoenix Press is honoured to present this representative selection of 46 of his papers, some previously unpublished and some originally published in rather obscure places.
Through the ‘I’-Window: The Inner Life of Characters in the Hebrew Bible
Published: Mar 2011
£60.00
It is often said that the inner life of characters in the Hebrew Bible is inaccessible to us, and that we can know little or nothing about how they felt and thought. In this study, original in both its scope and its method, Barbara Leung Lai shows how wrong that assumption is. She directs our attention to the many places where her chosen characters, Daniel, Isaiah, and Yahweh, speak of themselves, using the first-person 'I' voice, and finds those to be a unique point of entry, or window, into the interiority of the characters.
To construct an interior profile of these characters, Leung Lai develops an integrated methodology of psychological exegesis, drawing upon psychological perspectives of personality, Bakhtinian views of polyphony and dialogism, current studies of emotion, self and selfhood, and the empirics of reading under the rubric of reader-response literary criticism.
From these perspectives, Leung Lai can identify in Daniel two primary realms in his inner identity-seeing and emotive experiencing -- and can characterize Daniel's interior world as a world of paradoxes, of seeing without comprehending, hearing without the capacity to respond. Isaiah, on the other hand, exhibits a broad spectrum of emotions, from love, intimacy, joy and empathy to a sense of being under divine constraint, and to mourning, lament, doubt, distress, helplessness and despair. The prophet exhibits a profound sense of selfhood and subtle inner depths. The character of Yahweh is found to be most striking for its inner conflicts, with its frustrations, disappointments, pain and suffering.
This groundbreaking book will stimulate many readers to a new appreciation of characterization in the Hebrew Bible.
Through the ‘I’-Window: The Inner Life of Characters in the Hebrew Bible
£60.00
It is often said that the inner life of characters in the Hebrew Bible is inaccessible to us, and that we can know little or nothing about how they felt and thought. In this study, original in both its scope and its method, Barbara Leung Lai shows how wrong that assumption is. She directs our attention to the many places where her chosen characters, Daniel, Isaiah, and Yahweh, speak of themselves, using the first-person 'I' voice, and finds those to be a unique point of entry, or window, into the interiority of the characters.
To construct an interior profile of these characters, Leung Lai develops an integrated methodology of psychological exegesis, drawing upon psychological perspectives of personality, Bakhtinian views of polyphony and dialogism, current studies of emotion, self and selfhood, and the empirics of reading under the rubric of reader-response literary criticism.
From these perspectives, Leung Lai can identify in Daniel two primary realms in his inner identity-seeing and emotive experiencing -- and can characterize Daniel's interior world as a world of paradoxes, of seeing without comprehending, hearing without the capacity to respond. Isaiah, on the other hand, exhibits a broad spectrum of emotions, from love, intimacy, joy and empathy to a sense of being under divine constraint, and to mourning, lament, doubt, distress, helplessness and despair. The prophet exhibits a profound sense of selfhood and subtle inner depths. The character of Yahweh is found to be most striking for its inner conflicts, with its frustrations, disappointments, pain and suffering.
This groundbreaking book will stimulate many readers to a new appreciation of characterization in the Hebrew Bible.
Jonathan Loved David: Manly Love in the Bible and the Hermeneutics of Sex
Published: Mar 2011
£60.00
The relationship between the Hebrew heroes David and Jonathan has caught the attention of popular and scholarly writers alike. Yet there is little agreement about the nature of this relationship that speaks of a love between two men that 'surpasses the love of a man for a woman' (2 Sam. 1.26). Weighing the arguments of scholars including Nissinen, Stone and Zehnder, Heacock produces a meta-critical analysis of the many interpretations of the relationship between David and Jonathan, identifying three dominant readings: the traditional political-theological interpretation, the homoerotic interpretation, and the homosocial interpretation.
After outlining the three interpretive approaches, Heacock considers the evidence cited to support each: namely, themes in the David and Jonathan narrative and related biblical texts, ancient political treaties, laws pertaining to homogenital behaviour in the ancient Mediterranean world, and the heroic tales of the Gilgamesh Epic and Homer's Iliad. By applying recent epistemological shifts in knowledge as developed in the interdisciplinary fields of sexuality studies, queer studies and ancient studies, Heacock emphasizes the inescapability of the modern reader's cultural context when reading the narrative, particularly the influence of modern discourses of sexuality.
Rather than suggest an alternative historical reading, Heacock turns the debate on its head by abandoning claims to historical veracity and embracing the input of the contemporary queer reader. Using queer theory and reader-response criticism, he offers a reading of the relationship between David and Jonathan through the lens of contemporary gay male friendships. This queer reading not only celebrates manly love in its numerous forms, but also adds a self-critical voice to the discussion that exposes the heteronormative assumptions underlying the questions often asked of the narrative.
Jonathan Loved David: Manly Love in the Bible and the Hermeneutics of Sex
£60.00
The relationship between the Hebrew heroes David and Jonathan has caught the attention of popular and scholarly writers alike. Yet there is little agreement about the nature of this relationship that speaks of a love between two men that 'surpasses the love of a man for a woman' (2 Sam. 1.26). Weighing the arguments of scholars including Nissinen, Stone and Zehnder, Heacock produces a meta-critical analysis of the many interpretations of the relationship between David and Jonathan, identifying three dominant readings: the traditional political-theological interpretation, the homoerotic interpretation, and the homosocial interpretation.
After outlining the three interpretive approaches, Heacock considers the evidence cited to support each: namely, themes in the David and Jonathan narrative and related biblical texts, ancient political treaties, laws pertaining to homogenital behaviour in the ancient Mediterranean world, and the heroic tales of the Gilgamesh Epic and Homer's Iliad. By applying recent epistemological shifts in knowledge as developed in the interdisciplinary fields of sexuality studies, queer studies and ancient studies, Heacock emphasizes the inescapability of the modern reader's cultural context when reading the narrative, particularly the influence of modern discourses of sexuality.
Rather than suggest an alternative historical reading, Heacock turns the debate on its head by abandoning claims to historical veracity and embracing the input of the contemporary queer reader. Using queer theory and reader-response criticism, he offers a reading of the relationship between David and Jonathan through the lens of contemporary gay male friendships. This queer reading not only celebrates manly love in its numerous forms, but also adds a self-critical voice to the discussion that exposes the heteronormative assumptions underlying the questions often asked of the narrative.
Holiness, Ethics and Ritual in Leviticus
Published: Feb 2011
£70.00
In this book, Trevaskis argues that holiness in Leviticus always has an ethical dimension, and is not simply a cultic category. In so doing he departs from the usual view that in Leviticus 1 —16 (P) holiness is largely a cultic concept. Biblical scholars have commonly read ritual texts as practical instruction or prescription, inferring the theological significance of the rituals from elsewhere. For example, theological interpretations of the 'burnt offering' have been derived from its use in narrative settings (e.g. Gen. 8:20; 22:13) rather than from its legal prescription in Leviticus 1.
Trevaskis, however, argues that an implicit command to be holy exists within some ritual texts in Leviticus, which are more than mere ritual prescriptions. It is in the symbolic dimensions of the rituals that the theological significance lies. In support of this argument, he undertakes exegetical studies of the 'burnt offering' (Leviticus 1), of the 'purity regulations' (Leviticus 11 —15) and of the physical appearance of priests and sacrificial animals (Leviticus 21 —22). These studies take place within a methodological framework that avoids capricious symbolic interpretations. Trevaskis draws on cognitive linguistic insights to discern when a text may allude to other texts within the Pentateuch (especially Genesis 1 —3), and attends to the legislator's use of various rhetorical devices (e.g. 'rhetorical progression').
Since the command to 'be holy' in Leviticus 17 —26 (H) only makes explicit what P leaves implicit in Leviticus 1 —16, this study has important implications for the compositional history of Leviticus. It becomes much less clear that H's ethical view of holiness developed from a prophetic critique of P (as Milgrom and Knohl, for example, argue).
Holiness, Ethics and Ritual in Leviticus
£70.00
In this book, Trevaskis argues that holiness in Leviticus always has an ethical dimension, and is not simply a cultic category. In so doing he departs from the usual view that in Leviticus 1 —16 (P) holiness is largely a cultic concept. Biblical scholars have commonly read ritual texts as practical instruction or prescription, inferring the theological significance of the rituals from elsewhere. For example, theological interpretations of the 'burnt offering' have been derived from its use in narrative settings (e.g. Gen. 8:20; 22:13) rather than from its legal prescription in Leviticus 1.
Trevaskis, however, argues that an implicit command to be holy exists within some ritual texts in Leviticus, which are more than mere ritual prescriptions. It is in the symbolic dimensions of the rituals that the theological significance lies. In support of this argument, he undertakes exegetical studies of the 'burnt offering' (Leviticus 1), of the 'purity regulations' (Leviticus 11 —15) and of the physical appearance of priests and sacrificial animals (Leviticus 21 —22). These studies take place within a methodological framework that avoids capricious symbolic interpretations. Trevaskis draws on cognitive linguistic insights to discern when a text may allude to other texts within the Pentateuch (especially Genesis 1 —3), and attends to the legislator's use of various rhetorical devices (e.g. 'rhetorical progression').
Since the command to 'be holy' in Leviticus 17 —26 (H) only makes explicit what P leaves implicit in Leviticus 1 —16, this study has important implications for the compositional history of Leviticus. It becomes much less clear that H's ethical view of holiness developed from a prophetic critique of P (as Milgrom and Knohl, for example, argue).
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume VII Sade—Resh
Published: Nov 2010
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume VII Sade—Resh
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Centre and the Periphery: A European Tribute to Walter Brueggemann
Published: Oct 2010
£50.00
In this valuable volume, 13 scholars from Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany pay tribute to Walter Brueggemann's outstanding contribution to Old Testament studies, notably his Theology of the Old Testament (1997). His own setting is the USA, and it is not generally recognized how far-reaching his influence has been. This volume aims to demonstrate that many scholars in diverse locations have been stimulated by the sweep of his energetic criticism.
Brueggemann himself often speaks of Old Testament scholarship in terms of centre and margin, meaning thereby the dominant historical-critical mode of research as against the new types of analysis that have come into being in the last decades. He constantly has recourse also to the Hebrew Bible's own tension between a mainstream centre with its testimony to Yahweh's power, providence and justice and a margin according to which the deity is called to account for failures in divine governance.
The essays in Part I are devoted to 'centrist' questions in the main, including contributions from Rainer Albertz, Katharine Dell, Frederik Lindstršm, Christoph Bultmann, and Hugh Williamson. The essays in Part II are from scholars who apply a range of alternative or 'peripheral' interpretative methods, Walter Moberly, Terje Stordalen, Jill Middlemas, Ulrich Berges, Mark Gray, Else Holt, Gordon McConville and David Clines.
The Centre and the Periphery: A European Tribute to Walter Brueggemann
£50.00
In this valuable volume, 13 scholars from Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany pay tribute to Walter Brueggemann's outstanding contribution to Old Testament studies, notably his Theology of the Old Testament (1997). His own setting is the USA, and it is not generally recognized how far-reaching his influence has been. This volume aims to demonstrate that many scholars in diverse locations have been stimulated by the sweep of his energetic criticism.
Brueggemann himself often speaks of Old Testament scholarship in terms of centre and margin, meaning thereby the dominant historical-critical mode of research as against the new types of analysis that have come into being in the last decades. He constantly has recourse also to the Hebrew Bible's own tension between a mainstream centre with its testimony to Yahweh's power, providence and justice and a margin according to which the deity is called to account for failures in divine governance.
The essays in Part I are devoted to 'centrist' questions in the main, including contributions from Rainer Albertz, Katharine Dell, Frederik Lindstršm, Christoph Bultmann, and Hugh Williamson. The essays in Part II are from scholars who apply a range of alternative or 'peripheral' interpretative methods, Walter Moberly, Terje Stordalen, Jill Middlemas, Ulrich Berges, Mark Gray, Else Holt, Gordon McConville and David Clines.
Love, Lust, and Lunacy: The Stories of Saul and David in Music
Published: Oct 2010
£65.00
This is Leneman's second foray into the interdisciplinary study of the Bible and music, following her The Performed Bible: The Story of Ruth in Opera and Oratorio (2007).
In Love, Lust, and Lunacy she shows how these themes have captured the imagination of librettists and composers of many eras to set the narratives of the books of Samuel to music. Leneman convincingly illustrates music's ability to suggest emotions and character traits that can only be read between the lines of a text, through an in-depth discussion of 16 operas and oratorios from the eighteenth to the late twentieth century —including works of Handel, Nielsen, Parry, Honegger, Milhaud and lesser-known composers. The musical analyses can be understood on different levels by both specialists and non-specialists, providing a new perspective for biblical scholars along with a new appreciation of the biblical texts for musicians and music lovers.
Librettists and composers working with the Saul and David stories were alert to the complexity and ambivalence of the biblical portraits, and filled in the blanks left by the biblical writer in stirring and compelling ways. Their gap-filling may sometimes contradict traditional versions or interpretations of the biblical text, but their musical creativity often makes the words and actions of the biblical characters more convincing and compelling. In the musical works reviewed here there are portrayed three-dimensional figures —not only David and Saul, but also Samuel, Michal, Bathsheba, the Woman of Endor and others, personages barely glimpsed between the lines of the biblical text but imagined in different ways by readers in every generation.
Love, Lust, and Lunacy: The Stories of Saul and David in Music
£65.00
This is Leneman's second foray into the interdisciplinary study of the Bible and music, following her The Performed Bible: The Story of Ruth in Opera and Oratorio (2007).
In Love, Lust, and Lunacy she shows how these themes have captured the imagination of librettists and composers of many eras to set the narratives of the books of Samuel to music. Leneman convincingly illustrates music's ability to suggest emotions and character traits that can only be read between the lines of a text, through an in-depth discussion of 16 operas and oratorios from the eighteenth to the late twentieth century —including works of Handel, Nielsen, Parry, Honegger, Milhaud and lesser-known composers. The musical analyses can be understood on different levels by both specialists and non-specialists, providing a new perspective for biblical scholars along with a new appreciation of the biblical texts for musicians and music lovers.
Librettists and composers working with the Saul and David stories were alert to the complexity and ambivalence of the biblical portraits, and filled in the blanks left by the biblical writer in stirring and compelling ways. Their gap-filling may sometimes contradict traditional versions or interpretations of the biblical text, but their musical creativity often makes the words and actions of the biblical characters more convincing and compelling. In the musical works reviewed here there are portrayed three-dimensional figures —not only David and Saul, but also Samuel, Michal, Bathsheba, the Woman of Endor and others, personages barely glimpsed between the lines of the biblical text but imagined in different ways by readers in every generation.
The Demise of the Warlord: A New Look at the David Story
Published: Oct 2010
£50.00
The novelty of this monograph on David and Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11 —12) lies in its placing the narrative in the context of the behaviour of nomadic warlords and Amorite tribal chieftains as reflected in several Akkadian texts from Mari and Mesopotamia. The biblical story is interpreted in the light of an Akkadian literary topos depicting the ideal warlike existence of a Bedouin tribal chieftain. According to this topos, David's dallying with women, and eating, drinking and living in the shade rather than leading armies into military exploits would be considered unworthy of a warlord and disparaging to his reputation.
Another new feature in this book is the explanation of the treatment that King David inflicted on Uriah the Hittite, a 'resident alien' according to the rabbis, in the light of the outrage that a high official of a Pharaoh committed upon a resident-alien in El-Amarna times. There seems to have existed a non-written ancient Near Eastern law about the obligation of protecting and not harming resident aliens. As evidenced by the El-Amarna letter 162, disregard for this law entailed a death sentence on the perpetrator of such an outrage. In 2 Samuel 11 —12 the outrage done to the resident alien is expressed through the literary motif of the abduction of the beautiful wife in the context of oppression and threat exercised by the powerful over the weak and the helpless.
The Demise of the Warlord: A New Look at the David Story
£50.00
The novelty of this monograph on David and Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11 —12) lies in its placing the narrative in the context of the behaviour of nomadic warlords and Amorite tribal chieftains as reflected in several Akkadian texts from Mari and Mesopotamia. The biblical story is interpreted in the light of an Akkadian literary topos depicting the ideal warlike existence of a Bedouin tribal chieftain. According to this topos, David's dallying with women, and eating, drinking and living in the shade rather than leading armies into military exploits would be considered unworthy of a warlord and disparaging to his reputation.
Another new feature in this book is the explanation of the treatment that King David inflicted on Uriah the Hittite, a 'resident alien' according to the rabbis, in the light of the outrage that a high official of a Pharaoh committed upon a resident-alien in El-Amarna times. There seems to have existed a non-written ancient Near Eastern law about the obligation of protecting and not harming resident aliens. As evidenced by the El-Amarna letter 162, disregard for this law entailed a death sentence on the perpetrator of such an outrage. In 2 Samuel 11 —12 the outrage done to the resident alien is expressed through the literary motif of the abduction of the beautiful wife in the context of oppression and threat exercised by the powerful over the weak and the helpless.
A New Grammar of Biblical Hebrew
Published: July 2010
£22.50 – £40.00
This is a Hebrew grammar with a difference, being the first truly discourse-based grammar. Its goal is for students to understand Biblical Hebrew as a language, seeing its forms and conjugations as a coherent linguistic system, appreciating why and how the text means what it says —rather than learning Hebrew as a set of random rules and apparently arbitrary meanings.
Thirty-one lessons equip learners for reading the biblical text in Hebrew. They include sections on biblical narrative, poetry, and the Masora —as well as of the text of the Hebrew Bible, lexica, and concordances. The examples and exercises are all taken directly from the biblical text, so that students can check their work against any relatively literal version of the Bible.
The vocabulary lists include all of the words that occur fifty times or more in the Hebrew Bible. Special also to this Grammar are the 'enrichments': brief sections at the end of each chapter encouraging students to apply their grammatical knowledge to specific questions, issues, or passages in the biblical text. Appendices include a Vocabulary of all Hebrew words and proper names that occur fifty times or more, and a Glossary and index of technical terms —as well as complete nominal, pronominal, and verbal paradigms, and an annotated bibliography.
The learner-friendly design of this Grammar has been endorsed by faculty and by students who have used pre-publication versions to teach themselves Biblical Hebrew, both individually and in classes and informal groups.
A New Grammar of Biblical Hebrew
£22.50 – £40.00
This is a Hebrew grammar with a difference, being the first truly discourse-based grammar. Its goal is for students to understand Biblical Hebrew as a language, seeing its forms and conjugations as a coherent linguistic system, appreciating why and how the text means what it says —rather than learning Hebrew as a set of random rules and apparently arbitrary meanings.
Thirty-one lessons equip learners for reading the biblical text in Hebrew. They include sections on biblical narrative, poetry, and the Masora —as well as of the text of the Hebrew Bible, lexica, and concordances. The examples and exercises are all taken directly from the biblical text, so that students can check their work against any relatively literal version of the Bible.
The vocabulary lists include all of the words that occur fifty times or more in the Hebrew Bible. Special also to this Grammar are the 'enrichments': brief sections at the end of each chapter encouraging students to apply their grammatical knowledge to specific questions, issues, or passages in the biblical text. Appendices include a Vocabulary of all Hebrew words and proper names that occur fifty times or more, and a Glossary and index of technical terms —as well as complete nominal, pronominal, and verbal paradigms, and an annotated bibliography.
The learner-friendly design of this Grammar has been endorsed by faculty and by students who have used pre-publication versions to teach themselves Biblical Hebrew, both individually and in classes and informal groups.
The Changing Shape of Form Criticism: A Relational Approach
Published: Jun 2010
£45.00
In this important collection of essays by the leading theorist of form, Martin Buss presents in Part I, Steps toward a New Form Criticism, several essays that view forms as complexes of relations that constitute possibilities. This relational approach to form criticism rejects, on the one hand, the idea that reality is at base only particular and, on the other hand, an essentialism that holds that forms are firmly structured and there is a single correct way to classify texts.
In Part II, Interdisciplinary Ideas of Sitz im Leben, he shows how Gunkel's notion of Sitz im Leben, derived from his knowledge of other fields, made an impact on leading figures in several disciplines. They modified the notion, and their analyses became known to a number of biblical scholars. This cross-pollination introduced a new understanding of the notion of Sitz im Leben into biblical studies, which, in turn, was noted by scholars in other fields.
An appendix to the volume reports relational approaches in several disciplines that provide a stimulus for relational form criticism.
The Changing Shape of Form Criticism: A Relational Approach
£45.00
In this important collection of essays by the leading theorist of form, Martin Buss presents in Part I, Steps toward a New Form Criticism, several essays that view forms as complexes of relations that constitute possibilities. This relational approach to form criticism rejects, on the one hand, the idea that reality is at base only particular and, on the other hand, an essentialism that holds that forms are firmly structured and there is a single correct way to classify texts.
In Part II, Interdisciplinary Ideas of Sitz im Leben, he shows how Gunkel's notion of Sitz im Leben, derived from his knowledge of other fields, made an impact on leading figures in several disciplines. They modified the notion, and their analyses became known to a number of biblical scholars. This cross-pollination introduced a new understanding of the notion of Sitz im Leben into biblical studies, which, in turn, was noted by scholars in other fields.
An appendix to the volume reports relational approaches in several disciplines that provide a stimulus for relational form criticism.
A Question of Sex? Gender and Difference in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond
Published: Dec 2009
£17.50 – £45.00
Gender differences between men and women are not just a matter of sexual differentiation; the roles that men and women play are also socially and culturally determined, in ancient Israel and post-biblical Judaism as in every other context.
That is the theme of these ten studies. The first part of the volume examines the gender definitions and roles that can be identified in the Hebrew Bible's legal and ritual texts. The second part uses archaeological and anthropological perspectives to interrogate the biblical text and the society that formed it on issues of gender. The third part explores similar gender issues in a range of material outside the Hebrew Bible, from the Apocrypha through Josephus and Philo down to mediaeval Jewish marriage contracts (ketubbot).
Among the questions here discussed are: Why are men, but not women, required to bathe in order to achieve ritual purity after incurring certain types of defilement? What understandings of masculinity and femininity underlie the regulations about incest? Was ancient Israel simply a patriarchal society, or were there more complex dynamics of power in which women as well as men were involved? What do post-biblical re-interpretations of the female figures of Wisdom and Folly in Proverbs 1 —9 suggest about heterosexual masculinity? And what kind of rights did mediaeval Middle-Eastern Jewish women have within their marriage relationships?
This is the first volume in the sub-series King's College London Studies in the Bible and Gender. The second is Embroidered Garments: Priests and Gender in Biblical Israel (2009).
A Question of Sex? Gender and Difference in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond
£17.50 – £45.00
Gender differences between men and women are not just a matter of sexual differentiation; the roles that men and women play are also socially and culturally determined, in ancient Israel and post-biblical Judaism as in every other context.
That is the theme of these ten studies. The first part of the volume examines the gender definitions and roles that can be identified in the Hebrew Bible's legal and ritual texts. The second part uses archaeological and anthropological perspectives to interrogate the biblical text and the society that formed it on issues of gender. The third part explores similar gender issues in a range of material outside the Hebrew Bible, from the Apocrypha through Josephus and Philo down to mediaeval Jewish marriage contracts (ketubbot).
Among the questions here discussed are: Why are men, but not women, required to bathe in order to achieve ritual purity after incurring certain types of defilement? What understandings of masculinity and femininity underlie the regulations about incest? Was ancient Israel simply a patriarchal society, or were there more complex dynamics of power in which women as well as men were involved? What do post-biblical re-interpretations of the female figures of Wisdom and Folly in Proverbs 1 —9 suggest about heterosexual masculinity? And what kind of rights did mediaeval Middle-Eastern Jewish women have within their marriage relationships?
This is the first volume in the sub-series King's College London Studies in the Bible and Gender. The second is Embroidered Garments: Priests and Gender in Biblical Israel (2009).
Interested Parties: The Ideology of Writers and Readers of the Hebrew BIble
Published: Oct 2009
£17.50
There is a twin focus in this volume. The title of a keynote essay —'Why Is There a Song of Songs, and What Does It Do to You If You Read It?' —hints at it. The focus is equally on the ideologies of the writers of the Hebrew Bible, who brought the text into being, and on the ideologies of its readers, who are being shaped by the text at the same moment that they are shaping it in their own image. Uncovering the ideologies of writers are readers is the project of this book, calling for a step beyond the usual scholarly goal of understanding —to a practice of the art of critique.
Among the other chapters in this challenging book are: The Ten Commandments: Reading from Left to Right, Metacommentating Amos, Haggai's Temple, Constructed, Deconstructed and Reconstructed, David the Man: The Construction of Masculinity in the Hebrew Bible, Psalm 2 and the MLF (Moabite Liberation Front), God in the Pentateuch: Reading against the Grain. This is a reprint of the original 1995 edition.
Interested Parties: The Ideology of Writers and Readers of the Hebrew BIble
£17.50
There is a twin focus in this volume. The title of a keynote essay —'Why Is There a Song of Songs, and What Does It Do to You If You Read It?' —hints at it. The focus is equally on the ideologies of the writers of the Hebrew Bible, who brought the text into being, and on the ideologies of its readers, who are being shaped by the text at the same moment that they are shaping it in their own image. Uncovering the ideologies of writers are readers is the project of this book, calling for a step beyond the usual scholarly goal of understanding —to a practice of the art of critique.
Among the other chapters in this challenging book are: The Ten Commandments: Reading from Left to Right, Metacommentating Amos, Haggai's Temple, Constructed, Deconstructed and Reconstructed, David the Man: The Construction of Masculinity in the Hebrew Bible, Psalm 2 and the MLF (Moabite Liberation Front), God in the Pentateuch: Reading against the Grain. This is a reprint of the original 1995 edition.
The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew
Published: Oct 2009
£35.00 – £60.00
This Dictionary (CDCH) is an abridgment of the 8-volume Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH). The DCH, the first volume of which appeared in 1993, was the first dictionary of the Classical Hebrew language ever to be published. Unlike other dictionaries of the ancient Hebrew language, which cover only the texts of the Hebrew Bible, either exclusively or principally, DCH records the language of all texts written in Hebrew from the earliest times down to the end of the second century CE. That is to say, it includes not only the words used in the Hebrew Bible, but also those found in the Hebrew Book of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus), the Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the ancient Hebrew inscriptions.
The CDCH thus contains not only the c. 8400 Hebrew words found in the standard dictionaries, but also a further 3340+ words (540 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, 680 from other ancient Hebrew literature, and 2120+ proposed words for the Hebrew Bible not previously recognized by dictionaries). All the words in the full Dictionary of Classical Hebrew are to be found in the CDCH.
The CDCH has been designed to be clear, concise and easy to use. The Hebrew words are arranged in alphabetical order, so it is not necessary to know the 'root' of a word to look it up in the Dictionary. All the Hebrew words and phrases quoted are accompanied by an English translation. At the end of each entry on verbs is a list of the nouns derived from that verb; and at the end of each entry on nouns a reference to the verb from which it is derived (when known). For every word the numbers of its occurrences in the four main corpora of classical Hebrew (the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ben Sira, and the ancient inscriptions) are noted. All the proper names in classical Hebrew texts are included, with their correct spellings in English.
Previous dictionaries have generally been revisions and adaptations of earlier dictionaries; DCH and CDCH result from a completely fresh re-examination of the texts and an independent analysis of the meanings of Hebrew words. Rich in examples and citations, this edition will be of immense value to students at all levels, as well as to working scholars who will not always be in a position to refer to the complete DCH.
The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew
£35.00 – £60.00
This Dictionary (CDCH) is an abridgment of the 8-volume Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH). The DCH, the first volume of which appeared in 1993, was the first dictionary of the Classical Hebrew language ever to be published. Unlike other dictionaries of the ancient Hebrew language, which cover only the texts of the Hebrew Bible, either exclusively or principally, DCH records the language of all texts written in Hebrew from the earliest times down to the end of the second century CE. That is to say, it includes not only the words used in the Hebrew Bible, but also those found in the Hebrew Book of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus), the Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the ancient Hebrew inscriptions.
The CDCH thus contains not only the c. 8400 Hebrew words found in the standard dictionaries, but also a further 3340+ words (540 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, 680 from other ancient Hebrew literature, and 2120+ proposed words for the Hebrew Bible not previously recognized by dictionaries). All the words in the full Dictionary of Classical Hebrew are to be found in the CDCH.
The CDCH has been designed to be clear, concise and easy to use. The Hebrew words are arranged in alphabetical order, so it is not necessary to know the 'root' of a word to look it up in the Dictionary. All the Hebrew words and phrases quoted are accompanied by an English translation. At the end of each entry on verbs is a list of the nouns derived from that verb; and at the end of each entry on nouns a reference to the verb from which it is derived (when known). For every word the numbers of its occurrences in the four main corpora of classical Hebrew (the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ben Sira, and the ancient inscriptions) are noted. All the proper names in classical Hebrew texts are included, with their correct spellings in English.
Previous dictionaries have generally been revisions and adaptations of earlier dictionaries; DCH and CDCH result from a completely fresh re-examination of the texts and an independent analysis of the meanings of Hebrew words. Rich in examples and citations, this edition will be of immense value to students at all levels, as well as to working scholars who will not always be in a position to refer to the complete DCH.
Embroidered Garments: Priests and Gender in Biblical Israel
Published: Oct 2009
£45.00
This collection of essays, the proceedings of an international conference held at King's College London in 2008, explores issues in the construction of gender that appear in the Hebrew Bible both in relation to priesthood itself and in literature with a priestly world-view (the P source, Chronicles, Ezra —Nehemiah, Ezekiel). Topics covered include female religious functionaries and their absence from the Hebrew Bible, masculinity and femininity as seen through the lens of priestly purity legislation, priestly genealogies as an expression of Jacques Derrida's 'archive fever', the definition of masculinity that is evidenced by priests' clothing, and the marginalization of women in priestly ideologies of nationality and kinship.
This is the second volume in the sub-series King's College London Studies in the Bible and Gender. The first was A Question of Sex: Gender and Difference in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond (2007).
Embroidered Garments: Priests and Gender in Biblical Israel
£45.00
This collection of essays, the proceedings of an international conference held at King's College London in 2008, explores issues in the construction of gender that appear in the Hebrew Bible both in relation to priesthood itself and in literature with a priestly world-view (the P source, Chronicles, Ezra —Nehemiah, Ezekiel). Topics covered include female religious functionaries and their absence from the Hebrew Bible, masculinity and femininity as seen through the lens of priestly purity legislation, priestly genealogies as an expression of Jacques Derrida's 'archive fever', the definition of masculinity that is evidenced by priests' clothing, and the marginalization of women in priestly ideologies of nationality and kinship.
This is the second volume in the sub-series King's College London Studies in the Bible and Gender. The first was A Question of Sex: Gender and Difference in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond (2007).
Five Stones and a Sling: Memoirs of a Biblical Scholar
Published: Oct 2009
£14.95
Michael Goulder is a scholar who has always taken an original approach to the Bible and biblical criticism. He has developed five major theories, which challenged received opinion among the learned; and the book tells the story of how these 'stones' fared when confronting the biblical establishment. He wryly admits that his slinging has been rather less successful than David's against Goliath.
Among his five theories a special place must be given to his demonstration of how much of the teaching ascribed to Jesus actually derived from the evangelists —the Lord's Prayer for example being composed by Matthew out of Jesus' prayers in Gethsemane. The parables too are the composition of the evangelists, Matthew characteristically writing of kings and rich merchants, while Luke speaks of women, stewards, a beggar and a Samaritan. A long-rooted error Michael Goulder has valiantly opposed has been the belief that Matthew and Luke were both dependent on a lost source, Q; in fact, he argues, Luke was familiar with Matthew's Gospel and copied or developed its teaching as he thought best.
Goulder has worked at the Old Testament as well as the New. He concludes that the Psalms were not the individual prayers of pious Israelites, as Gunkel and others supposed, but the compositions of kings or their poets, deploring national disasters and praying for blessing at the great autumn festival.
This account of Goulder's scholarly work is fascinatingly interwoven with that of his life and ministry; and there are many anecdotes and vignettes of other people that are both amusing and interesting. He was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church, and though he resigned his Orders in 1981, he never lost his love of the Bible.
Five Stones and a Sling: Memoirs of a Biblical Scholar
£14.95
Michael Goulder is a scholar who has always taken an original approach to the Bible and biblical criticism. He has developed five major theories, which challenged received opinion among the learned; and the book tells the story of how these 'stones' fared when confronting the biblical establishment. He wryly admits that his slinging has been rather less successful than David's against Goliath.
Among his five theories a special place must be given to his demonstration of how much of the teaching ascribed to Jesus actually derived from the evangelists —the Lord's Prayer for example being composed by Matthew out of Jesus' prayers in Gethsemane. The parables too are the composition of the evangelists, Matthew characteristically writing of kings and rich merchants, while Luke speaks of women, stewards, a beggar and a Samaritan. A long-rooted error Michael Goulder has valiantly opposed has been the belief that Matthew and Luke were both dependent on a lost source, Q; in fact, he argues, Luke was familiar with Matthew's Gospel and copied or developed its teaching as he thought best.
Goulder has worked at the Old Testament as well as the New. He concludes that the Psalms were not the individual prayers of pious Israelites, as Gunkel and others supposed, but the compositions of kings or their poets, deploring national disasters and praying for blessing at the great autumn festival.
This account of Goulder's scholarly work is fascinatingly interwoven with that of his life and ministry; and there are many anecdotes and vignettes of other people that are both amusing and interesting. He was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church, and though he resigned his Orders in 1981, he never lost his love of the Bible.
1 Samuel: A Narrative Commentary
Published: Oct 2009
£18.50 – £45.00
This substantial commentary presents 1 Samuel as a sophisticated work of literature, where the reader is challenged with a narrative that is fraught with interpretative possibilities. In his distinctive literary reading Bodner lays special emphasis on the intriguing array of characters that populate the narrative, and on the plot, in its design and its configurations.
Thus, a host of intriguing episodes and personalities are passed in review: from the symbolically charged closed womb of Hannah to the backwards fall and the broken neck of Eli, to the strange tour of the Ark of God through the menacing Philistine pentapolis, wreaking havoc. Then there is the complex portrayal of Samuel the prophet, the emergence of the fugitive David as a leader, and the eventual decline, madness, and necromancy of King Saul.
Only through a literary study of its many ironies and ambiguities, Bodner amply shows, can the richness of this classic royal drama be fully appreciated.
1 Samuel: A Narrative Commentary
£18.50 – £45.00
This substantial commentary presents 1 Samuel as a sophisticated work of literature, where the reader is challenged with a narrative that is fraught with interpretative possibilities. In his distinctive literary reading Bodner lays special emphasis on the intriguing array of characters that populate the narrative, and on the plot, in its design and its configurations.
Thus, a host of intriguing episodes and personalities are passed in review: from the symbolically charged closed womb of Hannah to the backwards fall and the broken neck of Eli, to the strange tour of the Ark of God through the menacing Philistine pentapolis, wreaking havoc. Then there is the complex portrayal of Samuel the prophet, the emergence of the fugitive David as a leader, and the eventual decline, madness, and necromancy of King Saul.
Only through a literary study of its many ironies and ambiguities, Bodner amply shows, can the richness of this classic royal drama be fully appreciated.
Decolonizing God: The Bible in the Tides of Empire
Published: Oct 2009
£17.50 – £39.50
For centuries, the Bible has been used by colonial powers to undergird their imperial designs--an ironic situation when so much of the Bible was conceived by way of resistance to empires. In this thoughtful book, Mark Brett draws upon his experience of the colonial heritage in Australia to identify a remarkable range of areas where God needs to be decolonized--freed from the bonds of the colonial.
Writing in a context where landmark legal cases have ruled that Indigenous (Aboriginal) rights have been 'washed away by the tide of history', Brett re-examines land rights in the biblical traditions, Deuteronomy's genocidal imagination, and other key topics in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament where the effects of colonialism can be traced. Drawing out the implications for theology and ethics, this book provides a comprehensive new proposal for addressing the legacies of colonialism.
Decolonizing God: The Bible in the Tides of Empire
£17.50 – £39.50
For centuries, the Bible has been used by colonial powers to undergird their imperial designs--an ironic situation when so much of the Bible was conceived by way of resistance to empires. In this thoughtful book, Mark Brett draws upon his experience of the colonial heritage in Australia to identify a remarkable range of areas where God needs to be decolonized--freed from the bonds of the colonial.
Writing in a context where landmark legal cases have ruled that Indigenous (Aboriginal) rights have been 'washed away by the tide of history', Brett re-examines land rights in the biblical traditions, Deuteronomy's genocidal imagination, and other key topics in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament where the effects of colonialism can be traced. Drawing out the implications for theology and ethics, this book provides a comprehensive new proposal for addressing the legacies of colonialism.
The Dan Debate: The Tel Dan Inscription in Recent Research
Published: Aug 2009
£45.00
The Tel Dan inscription was found in three fragments on Tel Dan in northern Israel in 1993 and 1994. It is one of the most controversial textual archaeological finds since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most scholars agree that the text, which is written in Old Aramaic, is to be dated to the late ninth century BCE. It refers to a war between the Aramaeans and the northern kingdom of Israel. The text is apparently represented as authored by King Hazael of Damascus, and many scholars have discerned the names of the kings Jehoram and Ahaziah of Israel and Judah in the fragmented text.
There has been an extremely lively, and even heated, debate over both its language and its content, and it is time that a full survey of the debate should be undertaken. In his previous book, The Tel Dan Inscription: A Critical Investigation of Recent Research on its Palaeography and Philology (2006)--now distributed by Sheffield Phoenix Press--Hallvard Hagelia has examined those more technical aspects of the debate. In the present corollary volume, The Dan Debate: The Tel Dan Inscription in Recent Research, Hagelia analyses the debate on all the other more general aspects of the inscription. His own view is to support the joining of the fragments as it is done by the editors, Biran and Naveh, and to translate the controversial term bytdwd as 'House of David'.
The debate on the Tel Dan is interesting and significant in itself, but it can also be viewed as a case study of the wider debate between the so-called 'minimalists' and 'maximalists' in Hebrew Bible scholarship. In particular Hagelia's two books offer an notable exchange of views with George Athas's The Tel Dan Inscription: A Reappraisal and a New Interpretation (2003).
The Dan Debate: The Tel Dan Inscription in Recent Research
£45.00
The Tel Dan inscription was found in three fragments on Tel Dan in northern Israel in 1993 and 1994. It is one of the most controversial textual archaeological finds since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most scholars agree that the text, which is written in Old Aramaic, is to be dated to the late ninth century BCE. It refers to a war between the Aramaeans and the northern kingdom of Israel. The text is apparently represented as authored by King Hazael of Damascus, and many scholars have discerned the names of the kings Jehoram and Ahaziah of Israel and Judah in the fragmented text.
There has been an extremely lively, and even heated, debate over both its language and its content, and it is time that a full survey of the debate should be undertaken. In his previous book, The Tel Dan Inscription: A Critical Investigation of Recent Research on its Palaeography and Philology (2006)--now distributed by Sheffield Phoenix Press--Hallvard Hagelia has examined those more technical aspects of the debate. In the present corollary volume, The Dan Debate: The Tel Dan Inscription in Recent Research, Hagelia analyses the debate on all the other more general aspects of the inscription. His own view is to support the joining of the fragments as it is done by the editors, Biran and Naveh, and to translate the controversial term bytdwd as 'House of David'.
The debate on the Tel Dan is interesting and significant in itself, but it can also be viewed as a case study of the wider debate between the so-called 'minimalists' and 'maximalists' in Hebrew Bible scholarship. In particular Hagelia's two books offer an notable exchange of views with George Athas's The Tel Dan Inscription: A Reappraisal and a New Interpretation (2003).
Nahum, Second Edition
Published: July 2009
£15.00 – £35.00
In its wanton celebration of violence, the book of Nahum poses ethical challenges to the modern reader. O'Brien offers the first full-scale engagement with this dimension of the book, exploring the ways in which the artfulness of its poetry serves the book's violent ideology, highlighting how its rhetoric attempts to render the Other fit for annihilation.
She then reads from feminist, intertextual and deconstructionist angles and uncovers the destabilizing function of the book's aesthetics.
Finally, she demonstrates how mining Nahum's ambiguities and tensions can contribute to an ethical response to its violence.
This is a reprint of the 2002 edition.
Nahum, Second Edition
£15.00 – £35.00
In its wanton celebration of violence, the book of Nahum poses ethical challenges to the modern reader. O'Brien offers the first full-scale engagement with this dimension of the book, exploring the ways in which the artfulness of its poetry serves the book's violent ideology, highlighting how its rhetoric attempts to render the Other fit for annihilation.
She then reads from feminist, intertextual and deconstructionist angles and uncovers the destabilizing function of the book's aesthetics.
Finally, she demonstrates how mining Nahum's ambiguities and tensions can contribute to an ethical response to its violence.
This is a reprint of the 2002 edition.
Psalms
Published: May 2009
£15.00 – £35.00
The Book of Psalms is often seen as an anthology of prayers and hymns from which the reader may extract a selection as need or interest dictates. However, a recent development in Psalms scholarship has been a discussion of whether the collection of psalms has some overall structure. Is the whole of the Book of Psalms greater than the sum of its individual parts? This commentary argues that it is and presents a continuous reading of the Book of Psalms.
Moreover, the long-standing tradition, found within both Judaism and Christianity, of associating the psalms with David is used as a reading strategy. In this volume, the Psalms are presented sequentially. Each has its place in the collection but thirty-five are treated at greater length. They are read, at least in the first two books (Psalms 1 —72), as if they were David's words. Beyond that a more complex and developed association between David and the Psalms is demanded. David becomes a figure of hope for a different future and a new royal reign reflecting the reign of Yahweh. Throughout, David remains a model of piety for all who seek to communicate with God in prayer. It is in the light of this that later disasters in the life of Israel, especially the Babylonian Exile, can be faced. In the Book of Psalms, the past, in terms of both David's life and the history of Israel, is the key to future well-being and faithfulness.
Psalms
£15.00 – £35.00
The Book of Psalms is often seen as an anthology of prayers and hymns from which the reader may extract a selection as need or interest dictates. However, a recent development in Psalms scholarship has been a discussion of whether the collection of psalms has some overall structure. Is the whole of the Book of Psalms greater than the sum of its individual parts? This commentary argues that it is and presents a continuous reading of the Book of Psalms.
Moreover, the long-standing tradition, found within both Judaism and Christianity, of associating the psalms with David is used as a reading strategy. In this volume, the Psalms are presented sequentially. Each has its place in the collection but thirty-five are treated at greater length. They are read, at least in the first two books (Psalms 1 —72), as if they were David's words. Beyond that a more complex and developed association between David and the Psalms is demanded. David becomes a figure of hope for a different future and a new royal reign reflecting the reign of Yahweh. Throughout, David remains a model of piety for all who seek to communicate with God in prayer. It is in the light of this that later disasters in the life of Israel, especially the Babylonian Exile, can be faced. In the Book of Psalms, the past, in terms of both David's life and the history of Israel, is the key to future well-being and faithfulness.
Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 5 (2008)
Published: Apr 2009
£80.00
This is the fifth volume of the hard-copy edition of a journal that has been published online (www.jgrchj.net) since 2000. Volume 1 was for 2000, Volume 2 was for 2001 —2005, Volume 3 for 2006, Volume 4 for 2007, and Volume 5 for 2008. As they appear, the hardcopy editions will replace the online materials. The scope of JGRChJ is the texts, language and cultures of the Graeco-Roman world of early Christianity and Judaism. The papers published in JGRChJ are designed to pay special attention to the 'larger picture' of politics, culture, religion and language, engaging as well with modern theoretical approaches.
Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 5 (2008)
£80.00
This is the fifth volume of the hard-copy edition of a journal that has been published online (www.jgrchj.net) since 2000. Volume 1 was for 2000, Volume 2 was for 2001 —2005, Volume 3 for 2006, Volume 4 for 2007, and Volume 5 for 2008. As they appear, the hardcopy editions will replace the online materials. The scope of JGRChJ is the texts, language and cultures of the Graeco-Roman world of early Christianity and Judaism. The papers published in JGRChJ are designed to pay special attention to the 'larger picture' of politics, culture, religion and language, engaging as well with modern theoretical approaches.
With Wisdom as a Robe: Qumran and Other Jewish Studies in Honour of Ida Fröhlich
Published: Nov 2008
£60.00
Professor Ida Fröhlich, Professor of Hebrew Studies and Ancient Near Eastern History in the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, is a celebrated scholar who has been in the forefront of the remarkable development of Hebrew and Jewish studies in recent decades in Hungary. Among her important publications are 'Time and times and half a time': Historical Consciousness in the Jewish Literature of the Persian and Hellenistic Eras (1996), and, more recently, the first translation of the corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls into Hungarian. Her current major project is, in collaboration with a group of younger scholars, to prepare a Hungarian translation of all the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical materials.
In this very substantial volume, presented to her on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday, the essays of 38 international scholars are arranged in three sections: (1) Hebrew Bible / Old Testament, (2) Apocrypha —Pseudepigrapha and Qumran, and (3) Jewish Studies / Christian Interpretation.
With Wisdom as a Robe: Qumran and Other Jewish Studies in Honour of Ida Fröhlich
£60.00
Professor Ida Fröhlich, Professor of Hebrew Studies and Ancient Near Eastern History in the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, is a celebrated scholar who has been in the forefront of the remarkable development of Hebrew and Jewish studies in recent decades in Hungary. Among her important publications are 'Time and times and half a time': Historical Consciousness in the Jewish Literature of the Persian and Hellenistic Eras (1996), and, more recently, the first translation of the corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls into Hungarian. Her current major project is, in collaboration with a group of younger scholars, to prepare a Hungarian translation of all the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical materials.
In this very substantial volume, presented to her on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday, the essays of 38 international scholars are arranged in three sections: (1) Hebrew Bible / Old Testament, (2) Apocrypha —Pseudepigrapha and Qumran, and (3) Jewish Studies / Christian Interpretation.
Job
Published: Sep 2008
£15.00 – £35.00
This commentary on the book of Job is a non-technical commentary but it is full of Whybray's most mature reflections on the book.
The Introduction deals with the nature and purpose of the book, its specific and distinctive theology, its themes and its various parts and their mutual relationship. Thereafter, Norman Whybray, who is renowned for his insightful commentaries, usually comments on small sections of the text, and verse-by-verse in some especially difficult passages.
As a whole, his commentary is illustrative of the fact that the book of Job is more concerned with the nature of God than with the problem of suffering.
This is a reprint of the original edition in 1998.
Job
£15.00 – £35.00
This commentary on the book of Job is a non-technical commentary but it is full of Whybray's most mature reflections on the book.
The Introduction deals with the nature and purpose of the book, its specific and distinctive theology, its themes and its various parts and their mutual relationship. Thereafter, Norman Whybray, who is renowned for his insightful commentaries, usually comments on small sections of the text, and verse-by-verse in some especially difficult passages.
As a whole, his commentary is illustrative of the fact that the book of Job is more concerned with the nature of God than with the problem of suffering.
This is a reprint of the original edition in 1998.
With Eyes of Flesh: The Bible, Gender and Human Rights
Published: Aug 2008
£19.50 – £50.00
Carole Fontaine, well known among biblical scholars for her feminist studies in the biblical wisdom traditions and the ancient Near East, is also a human rights and interfaith activist working on issues of violence against Muslim women in the Middle East and Southern Asia and a board member of many agencies such as the International Network for the Rights of Female Victims of Violence in Pakistan, and the Women's Forum against Fundamentalism in Iran.
In this collection of her essays, mostly previously unpublished, she brings together these two concerns, distilling from the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam valuable insights into current questions of human rights. Unlike many writers, Fontaine recognizes the critical role of gender in the fundamental concept of the 'Other', so determinative for our view of humanity.
In our days, Fontaine argues, human rights issues have taken on a new dimension in political discourse about war, peace and terror, where often an appeal is made to religious and scriptural justifications for the violation or preservation of rights. Fontaine urges attention to the priority of the sufferer in adjudicating meaning, and turns to the 'little texts' of daily ethics rather than grand theological abstractions in order to place 'scriptures' in meaningful conversation with the concrete realities of our world.
This is the second volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Moden World.
With Eyes of Flesh: The Bible, Gender and Human Rights
£19.50 – £50.00
Carole Fontaine, well known among biblical scholars for her feminist studies in the biblical wisdom traditions and the ancient Near East, is also a human rights and interfaith activist working on issues of violence against Muslim women in the Middle East and Southern Asia and a board member of many agencies such as the International Network for the Rights of Female Victims of Violence in Pakistan, and the Women's Forum against Fundamentalism in Iran.
In this collection of her essays, mostly previously unpublished, she brings together these two concerns, distilling from the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam valuable insights into current questions of human rights. Unlike many writers, Fontaine recognizes the critical role of gender in the fundamental concept of the 'Other', so determinative for our view of humanity.
In our days, Fontaine argues, human rights issues have taken on a new dimension in political discourse about war, peace and terror, where often an appeal is made to religious and scriptural justifications for the violation or preservation of rights. Fontaine urges attention to the priority of the sufferer in adjudicating meaning, and turns to the 'little texts' of daily ethics rather than grand theological abstractions in order to place 'scriptures' in meaningful conversation with the concrete realities of our world.
This is the second volume of the Amsterdam Studies in the Bible and Religion (ed. Athalya Brenner), a sub-series of the Bible in the Moden World.
Marxist Feminist Criticism of the Bible
Published: Jun 2008
£40.00
This volume seeks to spur a lively discussion on Marxist feminist analysis of biblical texts. Marxism and feminism have many mutual concerns, and the combination of the two has become common in literary criticism, cultural studies, sociology and philosophy. So it is high time for biblical studies to become interested.
This collection is the first of its kind in biblical studies, bringing together a mixture of newer and more mature voices. It falls into three sections: general concerns (Milena Kirova, Tamara Prosic and David Jobling); Hebrew Bible (Gale Yee and Avaren Ipsen); New Testament (Alan Cadwallader, Jorunn Økland, Roland Boer and Jennifer Bird).
Thought-provoking and daring, the collection includes: the history of Marxist feminist analysis, the work of Bertolt Brecht, the voices of prostitute collectives, and the possibilities for biblical criticism of the work of Rosemary Hennessy, Simone de Beauvoir, Juliet Mitchell, Wilhelm Reich and Julia Kristeva. All of which are brought to bear on biblical texts such as Proverbs, 1 Kings, Mark, Paul's Letters, and 1 Peter.
Marxist Feminist Criticism of the Bible
£40.00
This volume seeks to spur a lively discussion on Marxist feminist analysis of biblical texts. Marxism and feminism have many mutual concerns, and the combination of the two has become common in literary criticism, cultural studies, sociology and philosophy. So it is high time for biblical studies to become interested.
This collection is the first of its kind in biblical studies, bringing together a mixture of newer and more mature voices. It falls into three sections: general concerns (Milena Kirova, Tamara Prosic and David Jobling); Hebrew Bible (Gale Yee and Avaren Ipsen); New Testament (Alan Cadwallader, Jorunn Økland, Roland Boer and Jennifer Bird).
Thought-provoking and daring, the collection includes: the history of Marxist feminist analysis, the work of Bertolt Brecht, the voices of prostitute collectives, and the possibilities for biblical criticism of the work of Rosemary Hennessy, Simone de Beauvoir, Juliet Mitchell, Wilhelm Reich and Julia Kristeva. All of which are brought to bear on biblical texts such as Proverbs, 1 Kings, Mark, Paul's Letters, and 1 Peter.
Troublesome Texts: The Bible in Colonial and Contemporary Culture
Published: May 2008
£35.00
The nine substantial essays in this volume deal with three wide-ranging though interconnected issues: the perceived status and standing of the Bible today; aspects of the current state of biblical studies, especially the uneasy tension between the increasingly esoteric agenda of mainstream scholarship and the hermeneutical concerns of those occupied with marginal readings; the significance of postcolonial scholarship and pointers for its future at a time when empire has once again become a reality and a global subject of debate.
Among the essays here are an examination of Victorian reconstructions of the life of Jesus and of the Buddha, and how these discourses were moulded and motivated by orientalism, colonialism, race and issues of British national identity; the complexities of the use of the Bible in Sri Lanka, war-torn and beset with communal strife, when the Bible itself is rife with vengeance and punishment; the political and hermeneutical ramifications of the Asian tsunami, and the use of natural disasters for decolonization and recolonization; imperial intentions and a postcolonial sub-text evident in the Johannine letters; the fortunes of the English Bible as its promoters struggle to uphold its credibility in a market-driven culture; suicide-bombing and asylum-seeking. All of these are issues of global significance and concern, but they are hardly ever addressed by biblical scholars.
The essays contain both theoretical discussion and practical questions as to the usefulness of the Bible at a time when its contested role has been complicated by its tainted association with oppressive causes.
Troublesome Texts: The Bible in Colonial and Contemporary Culture
£35.00
The nine substantial essays in this volume deal with three wide-ranging though interconnected issues: the perceived status and standing of the Bible today; aspects of the current state of biblical studies, especially the uneasy tension between the increasingly esoteric agenda of mainstream scholarship and the hermeneutical concerns of those occupied with marginal readings; the significance of postcolonial scholarship and pointers for its future at a time when empire has once again become a reality and a global subject of debate.
Among the essays here are an examination of Victorian reconstructions of the life of Jesus and of the Buddha, and how these discourses were moulded and motivated by orientalism, colonialism, race and issues of British national identity; the complexities of the use of the Bible in Sri Lanka, war-torn and beset with communal strife, when the Bible itself is rife with vengeance and punishment; the political and hermeneutical ramifications of the Asian tsunami, and the use of natural disasters for decolonization and recolonization; imperial intentions and a postcolonial sub-text evident in the Johannine letters; the fortunes of the English Bible as its promoters struggle to uphold its credibility in a market-driven culture; suicide-bombing and asylum-seeking. All of these are issues of global significance and concern, but they are hardly ever addressed by biblical scholars.
The essays contain both theoretical discussion and practical questions as to the usefulness of the Bible at a time when its contested role has been complicated by its tainted association with oppressive causes.
Unity and Disunity in Ezra-Nehemiah: Redaction, Rhetoric, and Reader
Published: May 2008
£55.00
Until the late 1960s the scholarly consensus was that Chronicles —Ezra —Nehemiah was a single, unified literary work. Then arguments began to be mounted for treating Chronicles as a distinct composition, and the majority of scholars were swayed by these arguments, though others retained the older consensus view. In recent years, some scholars have begun to suggest that Ezra and Nehemiah are distinct literary entities.
This new debate is the occasion for the present volume. Here scholars from around the globe (Canada, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Korea, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States) showcase current scholarly explanations for the final shape of this literary complex known as Ezra —Nehemiah. Fourteen scholars present their approach to the unity or disunity of this literature employing research methodologies that range from the diachronic to the synchronic.
Critical responses to this emerging research are provided by three reviewers (Joseph Blenkinsopp, Tamara Eskenazi and Hugh Williamson) whose work laid the foundation in earlier decades for much of the discussion today. The result is a rich conversation which provides an enlightening resource for the study of these biblical books in particular as well as for reflection on the impact of one's interpretive framework on the study of ancient literature in general.
Unity and Disunity in Ezra-Nehemiah: Redaction, Rhetoric, and Reader
£55.00
Until the late 1960s the scholarly consensus was that Chronicles —Ezra —Nehemiah was a single, unified literary work. Then arguments began to be mounted for treating Chronicles as a distinct composition, and the majority of scholars were swayed by these arguments, though others retained the older consensus view. In recent years, some scholars have begun to suggest that Ezra and Nehemiah are distinct literary entities.
This new debate is the occasion for the present volume. Here scholars from around the globe (Canada, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Korea, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States) showcase current scholarly explanations for the final shape of this literary complex known as Ezra —Nehemiah. Fourteen scholars present their approach to the unity or disunity of this literature employing research methodologies that range from the diachronic to the synchronic.
Critical responses to this emerging research are provided by three reviewers (Joseph Blenkinsopp, Tamara Eskenazi and Hugh Williamson) whose work laid the foundation in earlier decades for much of the discussion today. The result is a rich conversation which provides an enlightening resource for the study of these biblical books in particular as well as for reflection on the impact of one's interpretive framework on the study of ancient literature in general.
David Observed: A King in the Eyes of His Court
Published: Mar 2008
£18.50 – £50.00
From his earliest anointing in 1 Samuel 16 until his deathbed discourse in 1 Kings 2, David is surrounded by a remarkable cast of supporting characters -- an ensemble whose varying perspectives on him create some of the complexity of this royal character in the biblical narrative.
David's older brother Eliab speaks only once to his younger sibling, but this conversation has significant implications for the larger narrative. The encounter with Ahimelech the priest in 1 Samuel 21-22 in many ways symbolizes the 'crossing fates' of David and Saul in the sanctuary at Nob. Abner is the rival general who wants to make a deal, but his actions are difficult to gauge: does he have his own set of royal ambitions? Joab is pre-eminently a man of action and a key commander of David's troops, but this military figure surprisingly turns out to be as well an innovative reader and royal exegete.
Nathan the prophet has a tendency to surface at pivotal moments in the story, as a decisive influence on the spiritual and political affairs of the king. Ahithophel is a senior counsellor in the Davidic administration who becomes mysteriously embittered against David in the rebellion of Absalom; in narratives about him there is a confluence of tangled motives and prophetic words. Finally, Solomon is the younger son who accedes to the coveted Davidic throne, and curiously shares traits with his ancestor Jacob and has a swearing problem in 1 Kings 1-2.
David Observed: A King in the Eyes of His Court
£18.50 – £50.00
From his earliest anointing in 1 Samuel 16 until his deathbed discourse in 1 Kings 2, David is surrounded by a remarkable cast of supporting characters -- an ensemble whose varying perspectives on him create some of the complexity of this royal character in the biblical narrative.
David's older brother Eliab speaks only once to his younger sibling, but this conversation has significant implications for the larger narrative. The encounter with Ahimelech the priest in 1 Samuel 21-22 in many ways symbolizes the 'crossing fates' of David and Saul in the sanctuary at Nob. Abner is the rival general who wants to make a deal, but his actions are difficult to gauge: does he have his own set of royal ambitions? Joab is pre-eminently a man of action and a key commander of David's troops, but this military figure surprisingly turns out to be as well an innovative reader and royal exegete.
Nathan the prophet has a tendency to surface at pivotal moments in the story, as a decisive influence on the spiritual and political affairs of the king. Ahithophel is a senior counsellor in the Davidic administration who becomes mysteriously embittered against David in the rebellion of Absalom; in narratives about him there is a confluence of tangled motives and prophetic words. Finally, Solomon is the younger son who accedes to the coveted Davidic throne, and curiously shares traits with his ancestor Jacob and has a swearing problem in 1 Kings 1-2.
The Struggle of Yahweh and El for Hosea’s Israel
Published: Mar 2008
£50.00
In this provocative new proposal, Chalmers presents the prophet Hosea as engaged in a polemic against the Canaanite deity El. Especially in chs. 11 —13 Hosea is exposing the Northern Kingdom's fatal error of mistaking El for Yahweh (just as, in chs. 1 —2, it was Baal who was wrongly identified with Yahweh).
Here Hosea is asking, 'Who is the god of Jacob?', 'Who is the god of the exodus?' His answer is: not El —as in many Israelite traditions —, but Yahweh. This recognition leads Chalmers to reconstruct the 'back story' of the god El, from the sanctuary narrative in Genesis 28, the Balaam oracles in Numbers 22 —24, and the account of Jeroboam's cult in 1 Kings 12. Against the standard view that there is no polemic against El in the Hebrew Bible, Chalmers argues that the recurring polemic against the sanctuary at Bethel may have less to do with 'golden calves' or anti-northern rhetoric than with a much older debate about the identity of the god worshipped at Bethel. The second half of this book goes beyond the sanctuary at Bethel to the existence of a deity named Bethel.
Just as the cults of Yahweh and El were closely related in Hosea's eighth-century Israel, in the fifth-century Jewish settlement at Elephantine Yahweh and Bethel seem to be almost interchangeable. Since the religious beliefs on display in Elephantine show some striking similarities to that of Hosea's Northern Kingdom, the earlier Yahweh —El dynamic and the later Yahweh —Bethel dynamic may effectively interpret one another.
The Struggle of Yahweh and El for Hosea’s Israel
£50.00
In this provocative new proposal, Chalmers presents the prophet Hosea as engaged in a polemic against the Canaanite deity El. Especially in chs. 11 —13 Hosea is exposing the Northern Kingdom's fatal error of mistaking El for Yahweh (just as, in chs. 1 —2, it was Baal who was wrongly identified with Yahweh).
Here Hosea is asking, 'Who is the god of Jacob?', 'Who is the god of the exodus?' His answer is: not El —as in many Israelite traditions —, but Yahweh. This recognition leads Chalmers to reconstruct the 'back story' of the god El, from the sanctuary narrative in Genesis 28, the Balaam oracles in Numbers 22 —24, and the account of Jeroboam's cult in 1 Kings 12. Against the standard view that there is no polemic against El in the Hebrew Bible, Chalmers argues that the recurring polemic against the sanctuary at Bethel may have less to do with 'golden calves' or anti-northern rhetoric than with a much older debate about the identity of the god worshipped at Bethel. The second half of this book goes beyond the sanctuary at Bethel to the existence of a deity named Bethel.
Just as the cults of Yahweh and El were closely related in Hosea's eighth-century Israel, in the fifth-century Jewish settlement at Elephantine Yahweh and Bethel seem to be almost interchangeable. Since the religious beliefs on display in Elephantine show some striking similarities to that of Hosea's Northern Kingdom, the earlier Yahweh —El dynamic and the later Yahweh —Bethel dynamic may effectively interpret one another.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume VI Samekh–Pe
Published: Nov 2007
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume VI Samekh–Pe
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
To Break Every Yoke: Essays in Honor of Marvin L. Chaney
Published: Oct 2007
£50.00
Marvin L. Chaney (San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union, 1969 to 2006) enjoys international recognition for his seminal role in defining and developing a social-historical approach to the Hebrew Scriptures.
Among the 20 papers in this Festschrift, Phyllis Bird writes on Israelite women's religious activity outside the household, Robert Coote on the dating of J, William Dever on archaeology and the social world of Isaiah, Patricia Dutcher-Walls on queen mothers and royal politics in late-monarchic Judah, John H. Elliott on the semantics of envy, jealousy, and zeal in the Bible, Frank Frick on sexual imagery in Hosea 1 —3, Norman Gottwald on the interplay of religion and ethnicity in biblical Israel, Ron Hendel on the anthropology of food in the priestly Torah, David Hopkins on agricultural labor in ancient Palestine, Richard Horsley on the political roots of early Judean apocalyptic texts, Carol Meyers on Iron II Judean pillar figurines, Richard Rohrbaugh on Zacchaeus as defender of Jesus' honor, Katharine Sakenfeld on postcolonial perspectives on Rahab, Ruth, and Jael, Luise Schottroff on the notions of world rule and serving God in traditions about Jesus, Keith Whitelam on mapping ancient Israel, Antoinette Wire on the God of Jesus in Mark, and Gale Yee on recovering marginalized groups in ancient Israel.
To Break Every Yoke: Essays in Honor of Marvin L. Chaney
£50.00
Marvin L. Chaney (San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union, 1969 to 2006) enjoys international recognition for his seminal role in defining and developing a social-historical approach to the Hebrew Scriptures.
Among the 20 papers in this Festschrift, Phyllis Bird writes on Israelite women's religious activity outside the household, Robert Coote on the dating of J, William Dever on archaeology and the social world of Isaiah, Patricia Dutcher-Walls on queen mothers and royal politics in late-monarchic Judah, John H. Elliott on the semantics of envy, jealousy, and zeal in the Bible, Frank Frick on sexual imagery in Hosea 1 —3, Norman Gottwald on the interplay of religion and ethnicity in biblical Israel, Ron Hendel on the anthropology of food in the priestly Torah, David Hopkins on agricultural labor in ancient Palestine, Richard Horsley on the political roots of early Judean apocalyptic texts, Carol Meyers on Iron II Judean pillar figurines, Richard Rohrbaugh on Zacchaeus as defender of Jesus' honor, Katharine Sakenfeld on postcolonial perspectives on Rahab, Ruth, and Jael, Luise Schottroff on the notions of world rule and serving God in traditions about Jesus, Keith Whitelam on mapping ancient Israel, Antoinette Wire on the God of Jesus in Mark, and Gale Yee on recovering marginalized groups in ancient Israel.
Orientalism, Assyriology and the Bible
Published: Oct 2007
£22.50 – £60.00
'Orientalism' refers both to the academic study of the Orient and to Western scholarship that clings to stock images of the timeless East and oriental despotism. This landmark collection of essays, the first in its field, is written by seasoned art historians, Assyriologists and biblical specialists; it is organized under four rubrics:
1. Intellectual and Disciplinary Histories identifies waymarks in the rise of Assyriology in America, shifting images of ancient Assyria in their cultural context, Smithsonian Institution exhibits of 'biblical antiquities' at the world's fairs of 1893 and 1895, the rise of Egyptology in the nineteenth century, Mari scholarship and its impact on biblical studies, and the ancient Near Eastern text anthology as genre (Foster, Frahm, Holloway Reid, Younger).
2. Visual Perspectives suggests itself as a corrective to the academic habit of conjuring a 'texted Orient'. Here are contributions that describe Assyrianizing engravings in the famous Dalziels' Bible Gallery, the reception of ancient Assyria in nineteenth-century England versus France, and artwork for twentieth-century American histories of Israel (Bohrer, Esposito, Long).
3. Of Harems and Heroines explores gender issues in the context of the figure of Semiramis and the idea of the harem in biblical research and Assyriology (Asher-Greve, Solvang).
4. Assyriology and the Bible offers essays that focus on specific figures (Josiah), texts (Genesis 28.10-22, the Uruk Prophecy), or periods (Persian period in biblical historiography) (Grabbe, Handy, Hurowitz, Scurlock).
The volume includes a Bibliography of some 1000 items, an important resource.
Orientalism, Assyriology and the Bible
£22.50 – £60.00
'Orientalism' refers both to the academic study of the Orient and to Western scholarship that clings to stock images of the timeless East and oriental despotism. This landmark collection of essays, the first in its field, is written by seasoned art historians, Assyriologists and biblical specialists; it is organized under four rubrics:
1. Intellectual and Disciplinary Histories identifies waymarks in the rise of Assyriology in America, shifting images of ancient Assyria in their cultural context, Smithsonian Institution exhibits of 'biblical antiquities' at the world's fairs of 1893 and 1895, the rise of Egyptology in the nineteenth century, Mari scholarship and its impact on biblical studies, and the ancient Near Eastern text anthology as genre (Foster, Frahm, Holloway Reid, Younger).
2. Visual Perspectives suggests itself as a corrective to the academic habit of conjuring a 'texted Orient'. Here are contributions that describe Assyrianizing engravings in the famous Dalziels' Bible Gallery, the reception of ancient Assyria in nineteenth-century England versus France, and artwork for twentieth-century American histories of Israel (Bohrer, Esposito, Long).
3. Of Harems and Heroines explores gender issues in the context of the figure of Semiramis and the idea of the harem in biblical research and Assyriology (Asher-Greve, Solvang).
4. Assyriology and the Bible offers essays that focus on specific figures (Josiah), texts (Genesis 28.10-22, the Uruk Prophecy), or periods (Persian period in biblical historiography) (Grabbe, Handy, Hurowitz, Scurlock).
The volume includes a Bibliography of some 1000 items, an important resource.
New Seals and Inscriptions, Hebrew, Idumean and Cuneiform
Published: Sep 2007
£55.00
This collection of 16 papers is a significant addition to our textual evidence for the world of the Bible: it presents over 50 inscriptions, tablets and seals from the collections of Shlomo Moussaieff, in Hebrew, Idumean, and cuneiform. Most of these texts are being published here for the first time.
New Seals and Inscriptions, Hebrew, Idumean and Cuneiform
£55.00
This collection of 16 papers is a significant addition to our textual evidence for the world of the Bible: it presents over 50 inscriptions, tablets and seals from the collections of Shlomo Moussaieff, in Hebrew, Idumean, and cuneiform. Most of these texts are being published here for the first time.
The Birth of Moses and the Buddha: A Paradigm for the Comparative Study of Religions
Published: Aug 2007
£50.00
Responding to a recent upsurge of Jewish interest in Buddhism, Sasson undertakes the first serious academic effort to uncover the common ground between the founders of the two religions, Moses and the Buddha.
Because this is a study of traditions rather than a historical investigation, Sasson is able to synthesize various kinds of materials, from biblical and non-biblical, adn from early Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist sources. She notes the striking similarities between the life-patterns of the two leaders. Both were raised as princes and both eventually left their lavish upbringings only to discover something higher. Their mothers play prominent roles in the narratives of their births, while their fathers are often excluded from view. They were both born surrounded by light and embodying miraculous qualities.
But there are also some rather consequential differences, which allow these two colossal figures to maintain their uniqueness and significance. Moses was a man chosen for a particular mission by a higher power, a human being serving as the deity's tool. By contrast, the Buddha was a man whose mission was self-determined and actualized over time. Moses lived one life; the Buddha lived many. The Buddha became the symbol of human perfection; Moses was cherished by his tradition despite — or possibly because of — his personal failings. And although Moses is often presented as the founder of Israelite religion, the Buddha was simply following the blueprint outlined by the Buddhas before him.
The programme of this study goes further than to compare and contrast the two figures. Sasson argues that the comparative model she adopts can highlight doctrines and priorities of a religion that may otherwise remain hidden. In that way, the birth of Moses and the Buddha may serve as a paradigm for the comparative study of religions.
The Birth of Moses and the Buddha: A Paradigm for the Comparative Study of Religions
£50.00
Responding to a recent upsurge of Jewish interest in Buddhism, Sasson undertakes the first serious academic effort to uncover the common ground between the founders of the two religions, Moses and the Buddha.
Because this is a study of traditions rather than a historical investigation, Sasson is able to synthesize various kinds of materials, from biblical and non-biblical, adn from early Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist sources. She notes the striking similarities between the life-patterns of the two leaders. Both were raised as princes and both eventually left their lavish upbringings only to discover something higher. Their mothers play prominent roles in the narratives of their births, while their fathers are often excluded from view. They were both born surrounded by light and embodying miraculous qualities.
But there are also some rather consequential differences, which allow these two colossal figures to maintain their uniqueness and significance. Moses was a man chosen for a particular mission by a higher power, a human being serving as the deity's tool. By contrast, the Buddha was a man whose mission was self-determined and actualized over time. Moses lived one life; the Buddha lived many. The Buddha became the symbol of human perfection; Moses was cherished by his tradition despite — or possibly because of — his personal failings. And although Moses is often presented as the founder of Israelite religion, the Buddha was simply following the blueprint outlined by the Buddhas before him.
The programme of this study goes further than to compare and contrast the two figures. Sasson argues that the comparative model she adopts can highlight doctrines and priorities of a religion that may otherwise remain hidden. In that way, the birth of Moses and the Buddha may serve as a paradigm for the comparative study of religions.
The Performed Bible: The Story of Ruth in Opera and Oratorio
Published: Apr 2007
£40.00
The Bible and Western culture is a burgeoning area of interest in recent scholarship, but comparatively little has been written on the Bible and music. Leneman's is a groundbreaking work, making some pioneering forays across an important interdisciplinary divide.
The Performed Bible is an in-depth study of the librettos and music of 12 operas and oratorios on the story of Ruth from the last two centuries, establishing the potential of music, as a kind of midrash, for transforming a Bible text, its narrative and its characterization. The book includes detailed analyses of musical segments, the author being a cantor and professional musician in whose Jewish tradition biblical texts are chanted, not read.
This fresh and insightful work will no doubt prove attractive to biblical scholars, to musicians and to music lovers generally.
The Performed Bible: The Story of Ruth in Opera and Oratorio
£40.00
The Bible and Western culture is a burgeoning area of interest in recent scholarship, but comparatively little has been written on the Bible and music. Leneman's is a groundbreaking work, making some pioneering forays across an important interdisciplinary divide.
The Performed Bible is an in-depth study of the librettos and music of 12 operas and oratorios on the story of Ruth from the last two centuries, establishing the potential of music, as a kind of midrash, for transforming a Bible text, its narrative and its characterization. The book includes detailed analyses of musical segments, the author being a cantor and professional musician in whose Jewish tradition biblical texts are chanted, not read.
This fresh and insightful work will no doubt prove attractive to biblical scholars, to musicians and to music lovers generally.
Protest Against God: The Eclipse of a Biblical Tradition
Published: Jan 2007
£15.00 – £50.00
The Hebrew Bible contains many examples of protest or complaint against God. There are classic cases in the psalms of individual lament, but we find the same attitude in community complaint psalms, in the prophetic challenges to God, and in the Book of Job.
And yet, after the exile, the complaint tradition was largely suppressed or marginalized. In this imaginative book, Morrow asks the unheard of question, Why? A shift in the religious imagination of early Judaism had taken place, he argues, spearheaded by the psychology of trauma and by international politics. A magnification of divine transcendence downgraded the intercessory role of the prophet, controlled the raw pain of exile (Lamentations, Second Isaiah), and led to intransigent refusal of the logic of lament (the friends and Yahweh in Job). The theology of complaint was eventually overshadowed by the piety of penitence and praise (the Dead Sea Scrolls).
Modern readers of the Hebrew Bible are not obliged to assent to the loss of lament, nevertheless. Ours is an age when the potency of the biblical complaints against God is being newly appropriated. Although the transcendental imagination of Western culture itself is moving into eclipse, a heightened individual consciousness has emerged. There may still be life, therefore, in the ancient prayer pattern of arguing with God, which assumes that worshippers have rights with God as well as duties, that the Creator has obligations to the creation as well as prerogatives.
This stylish intellectual history will be welcomed for its scope, its panache and its theological engagement. Awarded the 2007 R.B.Y. Scott Book Award for an outstanding book in the areas of Hebrew Bible and/or the Ancient Near East written by a member of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies.
Protest Against God: The Eclipse of a Biblical Tradition
£15.00 – £50.00
The Hebrew Bible contains many examples of protest or complaint against God. There are classic cases in the psalms of individual lament, but we find the same attitude in community complaint psalms, in the prophetic challenges to God, and in the Book of Job.
And yet, after the exile, the complaint tradition was largely suppressed or marginalized. In this imaginative book, Morrow asks the unheard of question, Why? A shift in the religious imagination of early Judaism had taken place, he argues, spearheaded by the psychology of trauma and by international politics. A magnification of divine transcendence downgraded the intercessory role of the prophet, controlled the raw pain of exile (Lamentations, Second Isaiah), and led to intransigent refusal of the logic of lament (the friends and Yahweh in Job). The theology of complaint was eventually overshadowed by the piety of penitence and praise (the Dead Sea Scrolls).
Modern readers of the Hebrew Bible are not obliged to assent to the loss of lament, nevertheless. Ours is an age when the potency of the biblical complaints against God is being newly appropriated. Although the transcendental imagination of Western culture itself is moving into eclipse, a heightened individual consciousness has emerged. There may still be life, therefore, in the ancient prayer pattern of arguing with God, which assumes that worshippers have rights with God as well as duties, that the Creator has obligations to the creation as well as prerogatives.
This stylish intellectual history will be welcomed for its scope, its panache and its theological engagement. Awarded the 2007 R.B.Y. Scott Book Award for an outstanding book in the areas of Hebrew Bible and/or the Ancient Near East written by a member of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies.
Decolonizing Josiah: Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic History
Published: Jun 2006
£18.95 – £50.00
In the prevailing view, the Deuteronomistic History is the first and archetypical Western history, describing the creation of an Israelite state in Palestine as the origin of civilization in the region, a hegemonic culture rendering the other inhabitants of the country homeless in their own land. That view of Davidic domination over greater Palestine, fashioned under Josiah, has been given a modern nationalist reading by contemporary scholars, a reading consistent with the vast array of covert cultural confirmations of Euro-American imperial power.
How is it possible, Kim asks, given the all-encompassing sway of the colonialist reading of the Bible, to understand Josiah in other than colonialist terms? His answer: the historical imagination, making unfettered use of the tools of the critical historian, must be informed by the experience of those who have lived as the other, as the colonized, as not at home in their own land —which means, for Kim, the experience of being Asian American. The intellectual use of this experience creates his distinctive postcolonial perspective, as he draws attention to the connection between Western imperialism and the production of Western knowledge. Specifically, the author reads the story of Josiah intercontextually with the experience of Asian Americans from the space of liminality.
This is a passionate postcolonial reading of Josiah that, on one hand, critiques the failure of biblical studies to come to terms with its colonialist legacy and, on the other hand, connects the world of biblical studies to the world at large.
Decolonizing Josiah: Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic History
£18.95 – £50.00
In the prevailing view, the Deuteronomistic History is the first and archetypical Western history, describing the creation of an Israelite state in Palestine as the origin of civilization in the region, a hegemonic culture rendering the other inhabitants of the country homeless in their own land. That view of Davidic domination over greater Palestine, fashioned under Josiah, has been given a modern nationalist reading by contemporary scholars, a reading consistent with the vast array of covert cultural confirmations of Euro-American imperial power.
How is it possible, Kim asks, given the all-encompassing sway of the colonialist reading of the Bible, to understand Josiah in other than colonialist terms? His answer: the historical imagination, making unfettered use of the tools of the critical historian, must be informed by the experience of those who have lived as the other, as the colonized, as not at home in their own land —which means, for Kim, the experience of being Asian American. The intellectual use of this experience creates his distinctive postcolonial perspective, as he draws attention to the connection between Western imperialism and the production of Western knowledge. Specifically, the author reads the story of Josiah intercontextually with the experience of Asian Americans from the space of liminality.
This is a passionate postcolonial reading of Josiah that, on one hand, critiques the failure of biblical studies to come to terms with its colonialist legacy and, on the other hand, connects the world of biblical studies to the world at large.
I Have Written to the King, My Lord’: Secular Analogies for the Psalms
Published: Jun 2006
£12.95 – £35.00
The psalms in the Hebrew Bible have often been compared with the religious texts of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Canaan. Roger Tomes shows, in this incisive monograph, how the letters of the ancient Near East, from Mari, Amarna, Ugarit, Nimrud and Nineveh, are an equally rewarding analogue.
In them we find suppliants, caught in crisis situations, appealing to their rulers; they use the same arguments to persuade them to act as the psalmists in their appeals to God: protestations of innocence, confession of faults, promises of loyalty, descriptions of plight, appeal to the other's own interests, direct reproaches and quotation of the reproaches of enemies, and expressions of dependence. These are parallels that have much to teach us about the social position of the psalmists and their relationship to the cult.
I Have Written to the King, My Lord’: Secular Analogies for the Psalms
£12.95 – £35.00
The psalms in the Hebrew Bible have often been compared with the religious texts of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Canaan. Roger Tomes shows, in this incisive monograph, how the letters of the ancient Near East, from Mari, Amarna, Ugarit, Nimrud and Nineveh, are an equally rewarding analogue.
In them we find suppliants, caught in crisis situations, appealing to their rulers; they use the same arguments to persuade them to act as the psalmists in their appeals to God: protestations of innocence, confession of faults, promises of loyalty, descriptions of plight, appeal to the other's own interests, direct reproaches and quotation of the reproaches of enemies, and expressions of dependence. These are parallels that have much to teach us about the social position of the psalmists and their relationship to the cult.
Theory and Method in Biblical and Cuneiform Law: Revision, Interpolation, and Development
Published: May 2006
£15.00
This seminal work, first published by Sheffield Academic Press in the JSOT Supplement Series, remains in demand among scholars of biblical and cuneiform law, as well as among all those interested in the Pentateuchal traditions. The essays in the collection focus on two crucial topics that have been too much neglected in recent debate on the formation of the Pentateuch: (1) biblical law, and the development of Israelite legal institutions, and (2) the significance of ancient Near Eastern law as a model for the composition and editorial history of the Pentateuch.
To correct the imbalance, the contributors to this volume investigate whether the biblical and cuneiform legal corpora underwent a process of literary revision and interpolation. If so, what is the evidence for it, and how did such revision take place? If not, how are the textual phenomena to be explained?
The contributors are: Raymond Westbrook, Bernard M. Levinson, Samuel Greengus, Martin Buss, Sophie Lafont, Victor H. Matthews, William Morrow, Dale Patrick and Eckart Otto.
Theory and Method in Biblical and Cuneiform Law: Revision, Interpolation, and Development
£15.00
This seminal work, first published by Sheffield Academic Press in the JSOT Supplement Series, remains in demand among scholars of biblical and cuneiform law, as well as among all those interested in the Pentateuchal traditions. The essays in the collection focus on two crucial topics that have been too much neglected in recent debate on the formation of the Pentateuch: (1) biblical law, and the development of Israelite legal institutions, and (2) the significance of ancient Near Eastern law as a model for the composition and editorial history of the Pentateuch.
To correct the imbalance, the contributors to this volume investigate whether the biblical and cuneiform legal corpora underwent a process of literary revision and interpolation. If so, what is the evidence for it, and how did such revision take place? If not, how are the textual phenomena to be explained?
The contributors are: Raymond Westbrook, Bernard M. Levinson, Samuel Greengus, Martin Buss, Sophie Lafont, Victor H. Matthews, William Morrow, Dale Patrick and Eckart Otto.
Jeremiah, Volume 1
Published: May 2006
£17.50
In this remarkable commentary, first published in 1986, Carroll offered the first systematic study of the book that turned its back on the prevailing trend to use the book to reconstruct the historical Jeremiah, propounding rather the view that the book was the compilation of many small units, much edited and reworked, which were rarely connected originally with a prophet Jeremiah.
Carroll's work has all the expected features of a major biblical commentary: thorough investigation of the original text, in this case also of the sharply divergent Septuagint translation, deep acquaintance with the scholarly literature on the book, unceasing close reading of the work in its final shape and in its detail. But it adds a distinctively Carrollian dimension: its unrelenting analysis of the often conflicting ideological and theological forces that created every aspect of the book, demanding of its readers that they approach it as an unremittingly intellectual literary work.
Unaccountably, this commentary, published originally in the Old Testament Library series of Westminster Press in the USA and SCM Press in the UK, has gone out of print. Sheffield Phoenix Press offers this reprinted edition both because of its continuing significance and as a personal tribute to its author, whose untimely death occurred in 2000.
Jeremiah, Volume 1
£17.50
In this remarkable commentary, first published in 1986, Carroll offered the first systematic study of the book that turned its back on the prevailing trend to use the book to reconstruct the historical Jeremiah, propounding rather the view that the book was the compilation of many small units, much edited and reworked, which were rarely connected originally with a prophet Jeremiah.
Carroll's work has all the expected features of a major biblical commentary: thorough investigation of the original text, in this case also of the sharply divergent Septuagint translation, deep acquaintance with the scholarly literature on the book, unceasing close reading of the work in its final shape and in its detail. But it adds a distinctively Carrollian dimension: its unrelenting analysis of the often conflicting ideological and theological forces that created every aspect of the book, demanding of its readers that they approach it as an unremittingly intellectual literary work.
Unaccountably, this commentary, published originally in the Old Testament Library series of Westminster Press in the USA and SCM Press in the UK, has gone out of print. Sheffield Phoenix Press offers this reprinted edition both because of its continuing significance and as a personal tribute to its author, whose untimely death occurred in 2000.
Sexual Transgression in the Hebrew Bible
Published: Mar 2006
£60.00
The sex laws of the Hebrew Bible are well known, if not notorious. From them many have concluded that in ancient Israel adultery was a capital crime, that there was no conception of rape, that brides had to be virgins, and that women had no autonomy whatsoever. But was that the reality? Not if we broaden our horizon beyond the laws, argues Lipka, who focusses here on sexual transgression, that is, the trespass against sexual boundaries.
She finds three aspects of sexual transgression: it may be transgression against religious boundaries (sexual acts violating divine law), against communal boundaries (sexual acts violating the rights of another member of the community), or against personal boundaries (sexual acts imposed by force and/or violence). Transgressive sex is complicated.
But some conclusions are possible. (1) Though adultery was universally disapproved of, there was a wide variety of opinions on who was considered guilty, who was considered the offended party, who was punished, what the punishment was, and who should execute it. (2) There was indeed a conception of rape, with an understanding of its devastating emotional and psychological consequences for the victim. (3) Though virginity in brides was the norm, and young women were under a great deal of pressure to preserve their virginity, it was unrealistic for all men in ancient Israel to expect their wives to be virgins. (4) Women did not enjoy legal autonomy over their sexuality, yet they were not completely powerless; they had some degree of personal sexual autonomy, and some took the liberty of doing with their bodies as they pleased.
Sexual Transgression in the Hebrew Bible
£60.00
The sex laws of the Hebrew Bible are well known, if not notorious. From them many have concluded that in ancient Israel adultery was a capital crime, that there was no conception of rape, that brides had to be virgins, and that women had no autonomy whatsoever. But was that the reality? Not if we broaden our horizon beyond the laws, argues Lipka, who focusses here on sexual transgression, that is, the trespass against sexual boundaries.
She finds three aspects of sexual transgression: it may be transgression against religious boundaries (sexual acts violating divine law), against communal boundaries (sexual acts violating the rights of another member of the community), or against personal boundaries (sexual acts imposed by force and/or violence). Transgressive sex is complicated.
But some conclusions are possible. (1) Though adultery was universally disapproved of, there was a wide variety of opinions on who was considered guilty, who was considered the offended party, who was punished, what the punishment was, and who should execute it. (2) There was indeed a conception of rape, with an understanding of its devastating emotional and psychological consequences for the victim. (3) Though virginity in brides was the norm, and young women were under a great deal of pressure to preserve their virginity, it was unrealistic for all men in ancient Israel to expect their wives to be virgins. (4) Women did not enjoy legal autonomy over their sexuality, yet they were not completely powerless; they had some degree of personal sexual autonomy, and some took the liberty of doing with their bodies as they pleased.
Josiah’s Reform and Jeremiah’s Scroll: Historical Calamity and Prophetic Response
Published: Jan 2006
£50.00
This exciting new study of the prophet Jeremiah attributes to him a pivotal significance in the historical period of Josiah's reign.
He was, so Leuchter argues, one of the central agents of Josiah's propaganda machine and was intimately involved with the king's political agenda. Jeremiah, himself originally a member of the scribal school that composed the Deuteronomistic literature, encouraged the Shilonites of Anathoth to become active in Josiah's programme in the North following the waning of Assyrian power. Dismayed by the Shilonites' rejection of him and Josiah, and by the king's death at Megiddo, Jeremiah came to a radically new understanding of the divine purpose, encapsulated in the famous Temple sermon of Jeremiah 7 and evidenced in the prophet's debates with the political establishment in Jerusalem in the years that followed.
In his thoroughgoing historical reconstruction, Leuchter outlines a very specific sequence of events that took their rise from the Shilonite rejection of Deuteronomic policy, and on that basis carefully demarcates the texts that would have been included in Jeremiah's first scroll (the Urrolle ). Leuchter's monograph will make an important contribution to the study of the history and the literature of the late seventh century BCE.
Josiah’s Reform and Jeremiah’s Scroll: Historical Calamity and Prophetic Response
£50.00
This exciting new study of the prophet Jeremiah attributes to him a pivotal significance in the historical period of Josiah's reign.
He was, so Leuchter argues, one of the central agents of Josiah's propaganda machine and was intimately involved with the king's political agenda. Jeremiah, himself originally a member of the scribal school that composed the Deuteronomistic literature, encouraged the Shilonites of Anathoth to become active in Josiah's programme in the North following the waning of Assyrian power. Dismayed by the Shilonites' rejection of him and Josiah, and by the king's death at Megiddo, Jeremiah came to a radically new understanding of the divine purpose, encapsulated in the famous Temple sermon of Jeremiah 7 and evidenced in the prophet's debates with the political establishment in Jerusalem in the years that followed.
In his thoroughgoing historical reconstruction, Leuchter outlines a very specific sequence of events that took their rise from the Shilonite rejection of Deuteronomic policy, and on that basis carefully demarcates the texts that would have been included in Jeremiah's first scroll (the Urrolle ). Leuchter's monograph will make an important contribution to the study of the history and the literature of the late seventh century BCE.
The Older Testament: The Survival of Themes from the Ancient Royal Cult in Sectarian Judaism and Early Christianity
Published: July 2005
£25.00
The Older Testament is a radically new approach to many problems of both Old and New Testaments. It takes as a basis the theology of the book of Enoch, lost to western Christendom for many centuries, but here recognized as providing the most consistent set of clues to the nature of Israel's pre-exilic religion. Reformers and editors of the Second Temple period sought to remove from the biblical texts all traces of the older ways, which now survive only in the apparently bizarre themes and imagery of certain Pseudepigrapha.
Margaret Barker traces some of the ways in which the Deuteronomic standpoint came to dominate future readings of the Hebrew Bible as well as scholarly conceptions of Israel's religious development. Her reconstruction of the pre-Deuteronomic religion throws a startling light on much of the imagery of the New Testament and shows how closely the earlier Christian expectations were based upon the ancient royal cult in Jerusalem.
This book represents an important and original contribution to our understanding of Judaism and early Christianity.
The Older Testament: The Survival of Themes from the Ancient Royal Cult in Sectarian Judaism and Early Christianity
£25.00
The Older Testament is a radically new approach to many problems of both Old and New Testaments. It takes as a basis the theology of the book of Enoch, lost to western Christendom for many centuries, but here recognized as providing the most consistent set of clues to the nature of Israel's pre-exilic religion. Reformers and editors of the Second Temple period sought to remove from the biblical texts all traces of the older ways, which now survive only in the apparently bizarre themes and imagery of certain Pseudepigrapha.
Margaret Barker traces some of the ways in which the Deuteronomic standpoint came to dominate future readings of the Hebrew Bible as well as scholarly conceptions of Israel's religious development. Her reconstruction of the pre-Deuteronomic religion throws a startling light on much of the imagery of the New Testament and shows how closely the earlier Christian expectations were based upon the ancient royal cult in Jerusalem.
This book represents an important and original contribution to our understanding of Judaism and early Christianity.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume V Mem–Nun
Published: Aug 2001
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume V Mem–Nun
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume IV Yodh–Lamedh
Published: Aug 1998
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume IV Yodh–Lamedh
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume III Zayin–Teth
Published: Oct 1996
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume III Zayin–Teth
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume 2 Beth–Waw
Published: Aug 1995
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume 2 Beth–Waw
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume 1 Aleph
Published: Dec 1993
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, Volume 1 Aleph
£150.00
The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew is a completely new and innovative dictionary.
Unlike previous dictionaries, which have been dictionaries of biblical Hebrew, this is the first dictionary of the classical Hebrew language to include the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and all the other known Hebrew inscriptions and manuscripts.
This Dictionary covers the period from the earliest times to 200 CE. It lists and analyses every occurrences of each Hebrew word that occurs in texts of that period, with an English translation of every Hebrew word and phrase cited.
Among its special features are: a list of the non-biblical texts cited (especially the Dead Sea Scrolls), a word frequency index for each letter of the alphabet, a substantial bibliography (from Volume 2 onward) and an English–Hebrew index in each volume.
Nahum: A Trauma for a Trauma
Nahum: A Trauma for a Trauma